Video of Gotcha Day

These videos were taken by proud Gege (big brother), Jordan-age 7. Warning: some parts are very bouncy.) Be sure to have your sound on.

One Month Ago....

One month ago today we first held Taylor in our arms. It is hard to believe that she has been with us just this short time. It feels like she has always been a part of our family. She really has never looked back since that first day. We have discovered that she is a very social and vocal little girl. She talks all the time even if we can't understand most of what she is saying (We don't think it is Chinese, just babytalk.) Here is a list of the words she can say:

baby

Mama

Baba or Daddy

Gege (Chinese for big brother)

Popo(Chinese for Grandma)

diaper

doll

shoes

socks

juice

bubble

bath

eyes

ears

mouth

nose

teeth

up

Jesus

uh-oh

school

fish

She repeats alot of things we say to her. She will sometimes use sign language for "more" although she usually just makes a grunting noise to get more of something. She loves to wear the headbands (she made Stefan put one on with her jammies a few nights ago) with the flowers that she has on in most of the pictures. Her hair is growing slowly but surely. She also loves to wear mittens even in the house. If she can't find a pair of mittens, she puts socks on her hands. She loves to go in her stroller or in a shopping cart. She does well in her car seat (we were worried). We will see tomorrow how well she does for the 3 hour drive to my parent's house.

Here are some pictures from our Gotcha Day.

Pictures for You

We made it to Newark

We are through customs and on our plane for Hbg. Should be close to on time.

Heading Back to the USA

We are now boarding our flight for Newark, NJ. It appears that the flight will gain back some time and may be 10-15 minutes. Bye

Burger King

Grabbing a snack in Beijing airport and then off to our gate. I need to charge my phone, otherwise this will be our last update for a while. I should be able to charge on the flight to Newark.

Bye for now.

Guess what's for Lunch

We have arrived in Beijing. We will have plenty of time to make our next flight (over 3 hours). We've heard that the concourses are huge in Beijing airport.

No big surprise that we'd have rice with our lunch on our Air China flight from GZ. Unfortunately, we couldn't really stomach the mystery that accompanied it. Any guesses on what it was (we think we figured it out).

She's awake

Taylor woke up, but she's doing much better.

We are moving and will take off soon. Bye for now.

Taylor bumped her head

After we went through the gate and showed our boarding passes, we walked a long way and had to show our boarding passes again. As Joy got the boarding passes out *again*, Taylor fell and bumped her head. Now Taylor is madder than a hornet, Joy is frazzled, and Grandma needs a tranquilizer. They offered Jordan a Coke, I guess he won't be sleeping any time soon (and now Jordan needs to go to the bathroom).

We're leaving GZ soon for Beijing

This is the airplane that we're taking to Beijing (flight CA 1330). We are in line to board. Bye for now!

Pictures from Beijing, Part 1, by Stefan

Pictures from our time in Beijing... Part 1

Taking the Oath, by Stefan

Today was the day for us to go to the US Consulate. There were a lot of families there to sign their paperwork requesting a visa for their adopted Chinese immigrant child. In our case, when we land in the US and they stamp Taylor's passport/visa, she will become a US citizen. We had to take an oath regarding our request for US citizenship on Taylor's behalf. It was a short, but nice little ceremony. We weren't allowed to take cameras into the consulate, so we took a picture by the sign for the consulate on the first floor.

Tomorrow (Friday), we will be sightseeing and taking a riverboat cruise for dinner. We started packing tonight and will use an extra suitcase that we bought for our souvenirs.

Grandma Judy had a 90-minute massage tonight. She said it was the best money she spent in China. We're all thankful for a relaxed po po (Grandma). By the way, Taylor is now calling her po po :).

Our spirits are lifting in anticipation of our last few days in China and our return to the States. It has been a great journey, and our precious little girl was certainly worth the wait.

Good night from Guangzhou!

Another Day Closer, by Stefan

Tonight (Tuesday), we went to Lucy's (again) for dinner with friends.  Afterward, we went down to the river front to check out the riverboats and the lights.  It is hard to realize that our little island is actually a part of a larger city of over 10 million people.

This morning, we had a photo shoot with Taylor and 3 other adopted girls who we've made friends with their parents.  The girls didn't cooperate all that well (glad I don't work at Picture People and have to get great shots with little kids looking at the camera).  Some said the better shots may have been a video of the parents trying to get there kids to look at the cameras.

This afternoon, Joy, Jordan and I had a chance to check out a place that would put Flea Markets in Lancaster County, PA to shame (Grandma stayed with Taylor at the hotel).  Joy referred to it as a "Flea Market on steroids".  Eight floors of shops, there must have been over a thousand vendors with booths that contain all kinds of new things to buy... Just think of all the things made in China all under one roof.  You name it, they had it.

We bought Jordan a micro remote control car.  Imagine a matchbox car with RC controls.  Better yet, it cost us about $4.50.  I'm going back tomorrow to get more with a guy that wants to get some for his kids.

Afterward, we went to KFC for lunch.  The Colonel Sander's original recipe never tasted better.

Another interesting fact is that we took a 10 minutes cab ride and it cost about $1.50 each way (not bad).

Tomorrow (Wednesday), our paperwork will be submitted at the US Consulate.  All the forms that we filled out on Sunday will be submitted on our behalf, for Taylor, by our facilitator.  We will wait to hear from her if any additional information is needed.

We hope you are having a great day!  Good night, from Guangzhou.