Visa Day!

Our appointment date with the U.S. Consulate had finally arrived! This is the date that we received Ellie's Chinese passport with her U.S. Visa stamped in it. This U.S. visa gives her permission to legally enter the U.S. and, upon arrival, she automatically becomes a U.S. citizen (thanks to Bill Clinton and legislation he passed in 2000...I miss him as a president!).

Immediately after the visa appointment the majority of our group left the country to travel back home. We didn't, however, as our travel plans had us staying in-country for another day. Since we had no one to hang out with, we went to the local street vendor and purchased a copy of Valkerie (the movie with Tom Cruise) to watch after the kids went to bed. It was a mellow ending to a crazy China excursion.

Sista's, finally!

The evening of our consulate appointment, the girls finally clicked the way we knew they eventually would! They played together in the TV cabinet in our room...think Cirque du Soleil....I could never fit in there.

Pearl River Cruise

The evening prior to our swearing-in at the U.S. Consulate in China (to obtain Ellie's U.S. visa so she can legally enter the country), we went on a cruise down the Pearl River, the main river flowing through Guangzhou. It was truely a BEAUTIFUL evening!
Here is Ellie as we were waiting to board the boat.

....and then she had her first slice of PIZZA! Yes, we had ordered Papa John's Pizza to eat for dinner on the boat. It was delicious and tasted exactly like Papa John's back home. Yummm....

The cruise turned out to be wonderful. The weather was perfect and the girls behaved beautifully....just like sisters who are friends with each other, too.

Ellie Coming Out of Her Shell

Toward the end of the trip, Ellie really began to show her personality.

The Red Couch

The day before all adoptive families depart from China, it is tradition to have all the adoptive children (in a travel group) in traditional Chinese dress sit on one of the red couches in the White Swan Hotel for a photo op. Imagine trying to get a bunch of puppies to sit still long enough to take a photo and then multiply that by 100 and that's what these photo sessions are like.

Quincy and Ellie pre- group photo.....

The group photo...looks fun, huh?

Above are all the families in our Guangzhou Adoptive Family group.

Random Pictures from Some Day in China

Midway through our stay in China, Quincy began to do the opposite of anything we asked. For example, if we needed to go somewhere, she would instead plop herself on the floor and then refuse to get up. While this would be very annoying here in the states, it was especially bad in China as she would do it in the middle of the hotel lobby in front of all the native Chinese. I can only imagine what was going through their minds at the kind of parents they thought we were. Just embarrassing.

The Playground on Shamian Island

The playground on Shamian Island (the Island our hotel was located on in Guangzhou) represents China in everyway: Crowded.

Pictures from China---One Day Post-Gotcha Day

The first afternoon after Gotcha Day we decided to go swimming in the Beautiful White Swan Hotel pool (it really is beautiful...waterfall and all). Quincy was soo thrilled to finally have her "sissa" (sister) that she was constantly attempting to hold her hand. Ellie didn't really know what to make of it.

The picture above pretty much sets the tone for the day. Quincy was her typical spastic self---just not a good spastic but a bad spastic. Ellie just seemed annoyed with her a lot of the time.

Ellie's first time in the pool. It went pretty well.

After the swim we just lounged poolside. Quincy was still spastic; Ellie was still annoyed.

But....by the end of pool-time, Ellie was showing signs of happiness at last.

Greetings from China via Minneapolis

Hi Everyone -

This is Bridget a friend of Wendy and Tim's. I am posting to their blog on their behalf as they have been unable to access it while in China. They just wanted to let everyone know that they are doing well and they look forward to returning home soon. They are going to post lots of pictures when they get home and things settle down (who knows when that will be when you have a 2 & 3 year old :) Anyway Wendy sent me a few photos that I have included. I took the liberty of posting captions to them - hope you don't mind Wend!

Cute little Mei Mei going down the slide

Wait till she sees the big doggie that is waiting at home!


Two sisters enjoying the coy pond at The White Swan Hotel

Quincy and her baby!

Could they be any cuter?!

(Aunt Bridget doesn't think so!!!)

Out of Order---The Forbidden City (pre-Gotcha Day)

These pictures were actually taken when we were still a family of three....
Tianaman Square...

Entering the Forbidden City....

Inside the Forbidden City.... Still in the Forbidden City....

Ellie!

Waiting to leave the White Swan Hotel to travel to the Civil Affairs office to meet Ellie. Quincy brought her Cho Cho and Mei Mei's Cho Cho to the greeting.

Mei Mei is shell-shocked...Quincy is patting her face saying, "It's okay, Ellie".

Taking a walk before bath and bedtime. So far (three days in), Quincy is being a really, really, really good sister.

In bed about fours after Mei Mei became a part of our family :))))

We brought Ellie HanMei (who has gone by "Mei Mei" for the last three years and we're sticking with it) into the family on Monday. It has been a crazy three days so I am just now getting around to posting. Sorry!

Gotcha Day was very emotional. One of the people in our group spotted Mei Mei (AKA, Ellie Han Mei... see above) before we did and shouted to us, "There's Ellie!". She was right. Ellie was sitting in a room with other kids waiting to come out and meet us. When they brought her out (maybe two minutes after we spotted her), she was placed in our arms and immediately began to cry. Not hard, loud, wailing cries. Just soft sobs with tears. Crying is supposed to be a healthy sign of attachment (and separation from someone else)....we are very glad that she cried. Quincy immediately went to her and hugged her and gave her her very own "Cho Cho" doll. It appears Mei Mei has never played with dolls before as she tried to rip its hair out later that night. Good thing the hair was glued in with something strong.

It is now three days after Gotcha Day and it is a HUGE adjustment. Mei Mei is doing fine....Quincy is the one showing the "adjustment". Prior to coming to China, Quincy was 95% wonderful, 5% two-year-old with tantrums. Now it's more like 50-50. She gets along really well with Mei Mei, but her sleep and feeding schedule has been thrown off big-time (due to the crazy schedule our travel group is on). I am pretty sure the behavior change in Quincy is a combo of that and the new sister. It will be interesting to see how her behavior changes again when we get back home and back on schedule.

Another thing that is very different from the last time is this whole Swine Flu thing. A couple in our travel group were quarantined at 2:30 am the morning before we were to leave Beijing and travel to Guangzhou to get our babies. Apparently there were three Japanese men on their same flight into Beijing a few days prior that had Swine Flu. The officials in Beijing tracked down every single person on that flight (over 300) and they are all in quarantine now. We are pretty sure that as long as they don't come down with any sickness they will be allowed to fly out of Beijing after one week of quarantine. However, since everyone in our travel group was traveling with that couple in Beijing after their arrival (but before their quarantine), every person in our travel group has to have twice daily temperature checks by officials in protective gear. It's very odd.

Great Wall

We went back to the Great Wall....it hasn't change much in the last two years. We made it half way up again....then went back down for ice cream. Oh....and I got car sick on the way back to the hotel as our bus driver decided to take the scenic route (read that as winding route) back down the mountain. Ugh.

Ni Hao!

Local street food...the picture doesn't convey the worst part: The fact that the snack was still moving.....

Now that we're back in China, Quincy is getting exposed to culture that she has missed in the past year: Lesson 1---Chopsticks!