A Welcome Home Party

On Saturday, our friends from Parkwood Middle threw a "Welcome Home, Anna Kathryn" party at a local park.  It was a chilly but seasonal fall day, and the hostesses (Allison S., Linda, Randi, and Allison M.) did a great job with the whole bash.  

The food was yummy (fried chicken, Paula Deen's macaroni and cheese, salads galore, homemade black bean salsa) and the company excited to meet, at long last, our darling daughter.   She worked the crowd like a pro.   I enjoyed having plenty of time to visit with friends we just do not get to see enough now that Mark and I both teach elsewhere.  The little kids ran around a lot and Anna Kathryn really wanted to be off running with them.  She settled for snitching ball caps off of several of the guys' heads and romping with daddy.  She also got to indulge in cake icing 2 whole weeks before her birthday party!

The cake was dee-lish.  Buttercream frosting and chocolate mousse filling.  

Out of all of the shots of our family, we never did get one where we were all smiling.  Sigh.  Anna Kathryn had a great time, despite this weird expression on her face. 

Mark and the girls

After a busy day, a bath was a must.  Mark, Chief Bather, opted for a rednecky bath in the kitchen sink this night.  Anna Kathryn splashed to her heart's content!  My sink was real clean and shiny afterward, too.

The Sweetest Thing

Bedtime for Anna Kathryn with Nana.

Asleep in Pop-Pop's arms.

Anna Kathryn's first trip to Sonny's.  Aunt Hillary was so proud of her BBQ eating efforts!

Playing peekaboo with daddy at dinnertime.

Go Panthers!! (Mark picked out the cheerleader outfit)

One month and one day ago Anna Kathryn was placed into my arms in the doorway of a hotel room in Nanchang, China.  Mark took a bunch of pictures, and then it was his turn to hold her.  

Four and a half hours later, we had completed the adoption proceedings.  Anna Kathryn was ours forever!  The long wait for her was finally over.

And my life changed forever.  

I love love love being Anna Kathryn's mom!!

So much, that I've really enjoyed being unplugged from the computer for the past few weeks... to an extent.  I do check my Google Reader and e-mail daily.  Gotta stay in touch with the outside world, ya know.  But, I honestly was focused on our family, and adjusting to life at home with a baby, and just didn't feel like blogging.  

Right now, I'm on maternity leave from my job until December 1.  I get to spend my days with my baby, and so far I cannot even bring myself to think about "Black Monday."  It's not always easy being at home with her, but it is always good.  We have settled into a bit of a routine, and I enjoy our quiet mornings, lots of playtime, and a daily outing (to the library for storytime or to lunch with a friend or mochas with Allison and Maggie (highlight of the week) or --of course- Target.  We go at least twice a week.).  

Her naptimes are getting easier, although she tends to go down during a "window" of time rather than a set time, and the length is unpredictable.  In the grand tradition of moms everywhere, I am always conflicted as to what to do during naptime:  should I tackle the to-do list, or enjoy some R & R?  I try to do a little of both.  She is sleeping through the night again (hallelujah!!) so I get plenty of sleep, for which I am truly grateful.  (Maybe God knew I just wouldn't do so well with the whole newborn sleep deprivation thing.  Definitely an advantage to adopting a 10 month old!!)

Anna Kathryn is so playful; her favorites are peek-a-boo, tickle monster, sliding down the side of the bed into our arms, and looking at herself in the mirror.  She continues to add new skills almost daily.  This week she figured out how to roll form her tummy into a sitting position, pull herself up into a standing position, and she is becoming a pretty speedy crawler.  She crawls really well with some motivation set in front of her, like the remote, a magazine, or one of the cats.  

Life is really, really good.  It's been a long time coming, too.  Mark used to pray that one day, when we had our baby, that our house would again be filled with laughter and singing.  And it is.  Every day.  Although the singing is rather off-key.   

I never did post about our last 2 days in China-- we were too busy.  Here's a little recap.  The next to last day (Thursday) was a little rough-- I was in a weird mood and got all stressed out trying to complete our shopping list on Shamian Island.  We ate dinner at a restaurant with good food but a loud atmosphere, and honestly, I was just done for the day.  

Our last full day, Friday,  we met the other families in our travel group for a photo session.  Then, Mark, Anna Kathryn and I headed back to Shamian Island on our own to complete our shopping.  We had a really fun time shopping, found some lovely things for family and AK, I got a Starbucks mocha (bliss), and I even captured some cool shots of bridal couples posing for their portraits and models at a shoot (lots of ads and commercials are shot on the Island because it has a very European feel, having once been the site for most of the Consulates).  In the afternoon, we trucked over to the consulate for the swearing in ceremony, where we swore that all of the info we put in our paperwork was true.  That was it.  Hard to believe all the build-up was for that.  Plus we got the all-important brown envelope with AK's immigration and citizenship documents.  That night we went out to the Chinese Restaurant in our hotel for dinner with three other families.  It was a bit of a circus, but lots of fun.  We had some language barrier challenges with ordering, but the food we ended up getting was delicious.  My favorite was a dish of sauteed green beans with pork.  SO good.  My mouth waters just thinking of it.  One of the guys, Tim, ordered something with a name like "Essence of Frog with Snow Crab."  It looked like tapioca pudding mixed with white jello.  I sampled it, and the taste wasn't bad, but the texture... ew.  Guess who loved it though?? Go here to find out!  (This is my first attempt at using Flickr, so the pictures are out of order.  Frog Jello pics are on page 3).

So, I'm back in the bloggy world now.  It's good to be back!  But better to be home with Little Miss Sunshine.  

Leaving China for Home

We leave tomorrow morning at 7 AM (China Time) for the airport to fly home to North Carolina.  28 hours later (if my time zone math is correct), we will land in Charlotte-- home at last with our baby girl.  

The last 2 days have been eventful.  Thursday was, for me, a little blah.  I think I was just in a "ready to be going home" state of mind, and still dealing with a little adjustment to parenthood.  Today was great and very busy, so I really have not had time to do a final post about our last 2 days here.  That will have to wait until we get home.  But, we attended the swearing in ceremony at the U.S. Consulate, along with about 100 other families, and we got our Big Brown Envelope with Anna Kathryn's visa and immigration documents.  We have been warned not to open it, or we may be stranded in the airport, a family without a country forever.  Or something.  I kinda feel like we are carrying Kryptonite in our carry on luggage. 

So, we need to be up in about 6 hours, so I need to cut this short.  Thanks to all who followed our journey to Anna Kathryn in China!  I hope the return jet lag allows me to do the last post of our trip soon!

Day 13: Typhoon and Chen Clan Academy

We woke up to stormy skies today, and our planned shopping trip was postponed due to flooding on Shamian Island.  Typhoon Hagupit has rolled in and is dumping lots of rain on Guangzhou.  The temperature is significantly lower, too.  It was a nice change of pace to be drenched in rain, not sweat!

So, Rosa and Maggie, our terrific tour guides, made a quick change of plans and took us to the Chen Clan Academy and Guangdong Folk Arts Museum.  This is a large complex that once served as living space for members of the Chen clan when they traveled to Guangzhou for study or business from other parts of China.  Something like 5-8% of the population shares the Chen surname, and families in 72 counties in the province contributed to the construction of the complex.  It is also known as the Chen Ancestral Hall, and the other purpose of the space was to be a place for ancestor worship.  We toured the main area only, but it has 19 buildings covering a total area of 15,000 square meters.  I couldn't help but be reminded of the Camp Meeting grounds back home as we learned about the Chen Clan Academy.  In 1959, the Folk Arts museum was established by the government in the Academy buildings.  It has since been chosen as one of the "Eight Sights of the Goat City" since then!  

Despite the downpour, we enjoyed the displays of carved wood and stone, sculpture, and even ancient inkwells!  I was particularly interested in the hall where they have several rooms set up to look like a Guangdong home of 100 or 200 years ago.  We saw the unmarried women's room, a typical married woman's room, the scholar's room, and a traditional living room.  We also observed an artist creating beautiful ink paintings using just his hand and fingers-- no brush!   

After that, we headed back to the hotel for basically a free day.  I have to admit, I am rather tired of hotel rooms.  But, AK needed some lunch and a nap.  She wasn't really sleepy at her usual naptime, having conked out on the bus in Daddy's arms.  So we played for a while and she took a warm bath, since she is still having a few tummy "issues" and we are out of prunes.  The bath relaxed her, did the trick we needed it to do, and she fell asleep soon after. It couldn't be the pizza and whipped cream from yesterday, could it?  I think we have broken every baby feeding guideline over the past few days and it may be coming back to haunt us.  

Tonight we are going to go eat Italian (yay!!!) with a few other families from our group, and then get a good night's sleep in preparation for tomorrow.  Big day:  our paperwork goes to the US Consulate at 10:00AM (10 PM at home).  We have to hang out in our room in case there are any questions and the guides have to call us.  We pray all goes well with this last step.  Then, hopefully, shopping and a final group dinner.   

Maybe it's the typhoon, or slow connections, or my computer is tired, or the planets have misaligned, but Blogger is not cooperating with the pictures.  Again.  And frankly, I am sick of fighting with Blogger, even though I want my pretty pictures to accompany every post.  

I wish I could quit you, Blogger.  

So sorry, no pictures today, but trust me, Anna Kathryn's smile is still the cutest thing EVER. 

Good night (or day, since it's 4 PM here) from China!  

Edited to add: I was able to add a few pictures tonight!

The front doors of the Hall. The big guy behind us is a protective god one of the emperors who once resided here had painted on the doors to protect him from nightmares.

A giant, carved inkwell.

Enjoying our day, despite the rain!

This artist makes the beautiful, detailed ink drawings by hand.

Day 12: Taking care of business

Today was a good day but certainly not our most exciting one here in China.  No sightseeing, really, just wrapping up paperwork and a few appointments.  Even though our adoption was legalized in Nanchang, Jiangxi province the same day we got Anna Kathryn, we are dealing with the US end of things here in GZ.  

Today we had a paperwork party to fill out all the remaining forms to apply for Anna Kathryn's immigration into the USA, pulled together a packet of documents we had to bring with us (about 15 items in all), and paid the final fees for this process (whew!). The paperwork party consisted of about 10 parents all trying to follow our guide's directions in a conference room here at the hotel.  I think I wrote my name, Mark's name, Anna Kathryn Bo Di's name, and our address about 467 times.   A couple of times, the mom next to and I messed up something on our forms.  We both kept muttering, "oh, crap" and waving over the guide to bring the correction tape.  I think my brain has turned to mush over the past few weeks, because it's not like I have filled out about 100 other forms in the past 2 and 1/2 years!  At least we had really good tea to drink.

I got back to our room to find that Anna Kathryn had had a play date with another little girl in our group, Mikayla, and was having her lunchtime bottle and rapidly sliding into a nap.  Mark and I decided we needed one, too.  

After that, our whole group headed out for the required medical exam and visa photo session over on Shamian Island (more on the Island tomorrow, since we are taking a shopping trip there in the morning.  Whee!)  The exam was fairly basic and cursory, and required for her travel visa to the USA.  She was weighed and measured, had a quick hearing and vision test, and another doctor listened to her heart and lungs, and looked her over in general.  Strangely, I was a little nervous but she passed the test!  So did all of the children.  We did find out that she now weighs 16.2 pounds!  We are doing our best to fatten her up a bit, and apparently succeeding.  She is also 27 inches long.  Here are a few fun moments from this outing:

Oh boy!  I get to visit the doctor today!

Waiting with the other families for our turn with the doctors.

She wasn't really a fan of the ENT exam.

Then we went grocery shopping at the Carrefour, which I've heard described as the Chinese Wal-Mart.  It's nicer than the actual Wal-mart we went to in Nanchang, and it certainly does seem to sell absoultely everything.  It's huge. We got more bottled water and some snacks including cucumber flavored Lay's chips.  We'll see how those taste.  We also got real Doritos and some Oreo wafer cookies.  I'll let you know if those are good or not.  I bet they are!  It's a little embarrassing how excited we got over American junk food.

Riding down the moving walkway to the bottom floor is fun!  The walkway is magnetized so that your cart won't roll away.  It's so cool. 

Mark and Anna Kathryn are examining some kind of meat-- possibly sausages. Who knows?? 

One thing I continue to find hilarious in Chinese grocery stores is the rotisserie duck display.  It's like our rotisserie chicken display, but with whole ducks, cooked and hanging by their necks.  Mark wanted to buy a duck head (beak and all) from the hot prepared foods counter but I managed to talk him out of it.  I should've taken a picture, but I think the people in the store think we are weird Americans already so I have tried to limit the picture-taking.

We also got some soy-based formula for Anna Kathryn.  We just can't wean her off formula yet and all of the unfolding news about the tainted milk and formula have us very worried.  Soy seems to be a safer option, and it may help her spit up a bit less.  We have been giving her brands that, so far, seem to be safe.  I can't wait to get her home to the States and get some formula for her that I know is not tainted.  We will be stopping at a 24-hour Harris Teeter on the way home from the airport!  It makes me absolutely panicked if I think too much about the situation, and each day the news coverage is worse.  She seems to be very healthy, thankfully, with no scary symptoms.

Anyway, we headed out of Carrefour and then we went to Mecca, I mean Starbucks.  It smelled SO GOOD as we walked in.  Like home, and happy things, and... well, y'all know I love my coffee!

I had one of the best mochas ever.  Anna Kathryn helped me eat the whipped cream.  

After a loooong ride home in bad traffic, with many tired and crying babies, we got back to the hotel.  All we had energy to do was go eat some dinner at Pizza Hut and then back to the room to put Baby to bed.  BTW, the Pizza Hut here is so nice.  They do table service.  And the creamy corn chowder is really good, as was the stuffed crust pizza.  We went for the "stufffed with cheese" option as opposed to the "stuffed with squid" option.  Also, the dessert options were plentiful.  I had tiramisu, and it was sort of my appetizer, since it arrived at table first-- even before our drinks.  

Shopping and sight-seeing tomorrow.  Apparently there is heavy rain from a typhoon headed our way, so this should be interesting!   Thankfully, the rain-- which rolled in today-- has cooled things off considerably.  I am SO tired of sweating, so this is fine by me.  We won't melt! 

 Good night from China!

Day 11: Hello Guangzhou!

Last night was our final night in Nanchang.  We enjoyed another yummy meal at the East Restaurant with the England family, which Anna Kathryn wiggled through.  As we walked the 4 blocks back to the hotel, this was the sight which we enjoyed:

The Tengwang Pavilion at night.

Last night and this morning I felt a little emotional about the fact that these were the last few hours Anna Kathryn would spend in her home province.  Most Jiangxi people never travel beyond its borders.  In just one short week, she has been through so many changes and experienced so many completely new things.  She has handled the adjustment really well, overall.  She is just thriving on all the love and attention we are so happy to lavish on her.  I don't know when or if we will ever return to Jiangxi, and it wasn't always easy to be there in such a foreign place with a new baby, but I am so glad we got to experience our time there. 

Today we traveled to Guangzhou, in the southern part of China, at the mouth of the Pearl River. Guangzhou is also known by an older name, Canton (like Cantonese food).    Guangzhou is a huge city, especially after being in Nanchang.  Our guide kept saying that Nanchang is just a little town, and despite just having been all over Beijing, it really didn't feel all that small.  But Guangzhou is very urban.  

Our new digs are at the Asia International Hotel.  We continue to be impressed by the niceness of the hotels we have stayed at, and this one has very soft beds by Chinese standards.  Woo-hoo!  I am hoping that I will NOT wake up tomorrow with my usual neck cramp. 

We are up on the 33rd floor of the hotel. It has 45 floors, and the top one is a revolving restaurant called the Sky Cafe.  We splurged on the buffet dinner there tonight, and enjoyed the view as much as the food.  

Check out the view from our room!

But I am getting a little ahead of myself.  We got up way too early and were on our way to the airport by 8:00 AM.  Anna Kathryn was excited about her first plane ride, in between spying on the other travelers and charming everyone around her. 

Here we go to Guangzhou!

She did really well on the flight: ate a bunch of digestive biscuits that were the in-flight snack, played the drop-the-toy game (especially fun in Coach seating), and was basically cheerful until the last 10 minutes.  Then she wailed until I fed her some Puff snacks.  When I tried to put away the Puffs, the wailing resumed.  The Puffs reappeared.  Final score: Baby 1, Mom 0.  I would love to think that the flight home would go that smoothly...

This was the other, VERY welcoming sign for slightly homesick and weary travelers.  Guess where we ate lunch?

And it was delicious.  My dessert, a peach sundae, was particularly tasty.  The fries were nice and salty, too. Yum.  

Anna Kathryn introduced herself to a new friend:

I took a major nap when we got back to the hotel after lunch.  So did Anna Kathryn.  When we got up, it was almost dinnertime.  As I said, we enjoyed the amazing city views from the revolving restaurant.  My camera wasn't able to capture the city lights at night, but it did capture this shot of Anna Kathryn trying chocolate ice cream for the first time.  

Apparently she is not a fan.  Not yet, anyway.  At least we didn't give her the sesame flavor. (Which was not bad, by the way.  Mark asked what it tasted like and I said there is really no comparison.)

There were a few extra kisses to make up for the torture of ice cream.  

Our fun dinner ended when I realized that when AK squirmed around on my lap, and ended up on her tummy, she spit up the aforementioned chocolate ice cream into the front pocket of my Vera Bradley hipster purse.  Which I discovered when I reached into the pocket for the room key or something.  Nice.  Thank goodness for baby wipes.  They can get practically any stain out.  I think the purse will survive relatively unscathed, fortunately.  I love, love, love it, even after wearing it daily for two weeks.  But seriously, I really couldn't be too upset-- not with that grin.  

Tomorrow is our paperwork party, where "we" (me) get to fill out and gather all the paperwork and stuff needed for the US Consulate, to get AK's travel visa for the trip home and her immigration papers in order.  Fun, fun.  It's going to be great when we are FINALLY done with the paperwork.  After that, not sure of the schedule... sightseeing and shopping, perhaps? 

Good night from China!

PS-- Susannah (pictured in the blog button in the sidebar) and her parents and grandmother are flying home to the States tomorrow!!  We are so thankful and relieved, and praying that the long flight will go well for her.  Mark, AK and I got to visit for a few minutes this evening with the family and it was great to see Susannah looking so cute and feeling better.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Days 9 and 10-- At the Zoo (and the Park)

We have developed a nice little routine with Anna Kathryn.  Up around 7 (depending on how she slept).  Breakfast at the hotel buffet:  an egg, rice or congee, fruit, banana bread, and more.  This girl can really put away the groceries!  I think today she ate almost as much as I did.  Then we head back to our room for a bottle and an outfit change (breakfast is usually a messy meal) before heading out.  

Of course, this picture tells the whole story; Anna Kathryn enjoyed a big helping of prune baby food with her dinner.  We were trying to "help things along"-- and it worked!

Most days we have gone out between 10-1 for an excursion, and then back to the room to cool off and for her nap (and sometimes one for Mom and Dad). Afternoon is playtime, followed by an early dinner, bath, bed.  Two times we have been able to talk online with my parents and sister, and that has been very fun, although AK is so busy hamming it up she goes to bed rather late those nights.  

She is already changing and gaining new skills every day!  The first day we had her, she hated tummy time, couldn't roll over, and couldn't stay upright when we'd sit her up.  Playtime is on the king-sized bed in our hotel room, so she has a soft place to land (the feather comforter helps.  Hope they plan to wash that thing when we leave, since we have, ahem, done a lot of living on it over the past 6 days!). 

 Now she rolls over like a champ, is sitting up more steadily, and trying to creep-- or crawl; I can't remember the difference right now.  Today she spent some time digging things out of her diaper bag, which is about as big as she is.  Tummy time with daddy and mommy is lots of fun!  

The other night we introduced her to the Wonderful World of Books.  The librarian in me is so proud of her-- she just loved her book.  Granted, she enjoyed chewing it more than reading it, but that's to be expected. 

What is this new and marvelous thing?

I love books!!

Her strong will is evident.  When she wants something, she goes after it with single-minded determination.  If she is not in favor of something, she will screech and bat her hands at the offending object/washcloth/diaper/etc.  Today she took the shortest nap ever-- 25 minutes in Wal-Mart and in the van on the way back to the hotel after a busy morning.  Considering that there were a million or so people at the Wal-Mart, the fact that she could sleep at all was impressive. We got back to the room, she woke up, and all other attempts to put her down were futile.  

She howled in her crib and then caught me peeking at her between the slats.  Instant grin.  

Daddy tried to rock her to sleep.  Wailing ensues.  Daddy turns her upright.  Smiles and laughter.  

We are pushovers.  What can I say?  We've waited a long time to do this much spoiling.

Oh, yeah, we've also done some sightseeing around Nanchang, despite the nearly 100 degree (humidity to match) temps.  Nanchang is a bustling city, somewhat industrial, but with nice public areas and plenty of shopping.  Also, many KFCs.  We haven't sampled that yet, but the pepperoni pizza we got from Pizza Hut yesterday was quite tasty.  It came with a side of ketchup!

Saturday we went to the zoo with our guide.  The zoo was bigger and had more animals than I expected.  It is definitely different from an American zoo:  there were some species I wasnt too familiar with, and the animal pens are mostly concrete with little or no natural habitat spaces. Still, they seemed reasonable well cared for, and the animal acts were highly entertaining.  Very much like what you'd expect at the circus. 

 Anna Kathryn paid more attention to the crowds of kids with their families, but Mark and I enjoyed the animal acts a lot.  She did enjoy watching the fish.
 Mark couldn't resist feeding a frenzied group of giant goldfish.

First we saw the sea lion show, then we went to the big animal show. We saw monkeys walk a tightrope and ride bike, a bear that did tricks on hanging rings, and a goat that walked the tightrope with a monkey on its back.  

This pony and tiger trick was pretty amazing, too: 

Anna Kathryn and Mark got up close and personal with a bear.
The zoo is cool (even if we are sweaty)!

Today (Sunday) we went, along with the England family, to the local park.  We strolled the shady paths, watched people exercise and do tai chi,  and listened to a little Peking opera.

Mark and Anna Kathryn were mesmerized by the sounds of Chinese music.  We saw one couple where the wife was singing, and the husband played a 2-stringed violin.  Another man, a musician and teacher, played his instrument, and people would wait in line to sing impromptu duets with him.  

Sunday morning in the Park...

We also went to "Porcelain Street", filled with shops full of Jiangxi's famous and gorgeous hand-painted porcelain.  Jiangxi province is famous for this.   Mark and I planned to get a tea set for Anna Kathryn and some gifts for others, so we had fun shopping!  We wrapped up the day with a trip to Wal-Mart.  It looked a lot like Wal-Mart at home, only it was 2 stories and FULL of shoppers.  I was thrilled to find Maybelline eyeliner and Coca-cola Light.  There were even rollbacks:

First trip to the Wal-Mart Supercenter.  It will not be her last!!

I was determined to get pictures into this post, and I succeeded!!  It only took about 2 hours, off and on, to load all these shots.  I hope it will be easier to blog (and I'll be more consistent) in Guangzhou, our next and final stop in China.  In case you hadn't already noticed our itinerary has changed several times along the way.  The latest is that we are leaving for the airport at 8 AM tomorrow, instead of 3 PM, and Sally is working hard today to get Anna Kathryn's passport in hand by the end of the day today. 

BTW: Even though the post date says Saturday, I'm writing this on Sunday afternoon, China time.  

We have enjoyed our time in Nanchang, and are grateful to have experienced a little bit of life here so that we can share these stories with Anna Kathryn as she grows up.  However, we are excited to be heading to Guangzhou, reuniting with our travel buddies, and finishing the US end of the paperwork.  

Good night from China!