Guangzhou, China: we are loving it!

Today, I finally got Lydia to laugh at breakfast time so we thought this shirt was appropriate!
Lydia chowing down on some good chicken congee

As you can see..she was pretty hungry

The Ellis family hanging out with us for lunch

Lydia's new pajamas

Teaching the Chinese people what "you rock" means..we had so much fun!

Park next to the White Swan Hotel

The White Swan Hotel is located on the Shamian Island...it is just gorgeous here. This is part of the park on the Shamian Island.

More pictures of the park

Again...the park

Ditto...

Sunset in Guangzhou, China--Shamian Island

The weather here is hot during the day and cool in the evening

View of the Island

Picture of the sunset

Today we went shopping in the district. It was pretty fun. Lydia is just doing great. We are falling in love with her more and more each day. She seems to be doing pretty well with Baba too. She still doesn't like to try new foods, but I am not going to stress out about that. We haven't even had her for a week yet!

We only have two more days here. It is a bittersweet thing. We really like Guangzhou....I mean we really like it! But...we are totally ready to get back home.

Thanks to all of you who helped us get here. We are forever grateful.

Tomorrow we are going on a city tour and we are also going to a Buddist Temple...this should be interesting........

Until then....

So many pictures...so little time!

View from our room at the White Swan Hotel: Guangzhou, China
This was waiting for us in our room when we came back from getting her medical exam--Mattel gives one to each adopted child that stays at the White Swan.

View from room at White Swan

Inside the White Swan Hotel..this place is about 5 steps up from where we were in Nanning!!

Walking down the strip in Guangzhou

Bronze sculpters in the Guangzhou park

Lydia napping after medical exam..she did so well!! By the way..she is in good health!

Reaching out for Baba. Today is a good day.

Catholic Church in Guangzhou

Seriously, can you get any cuter than this?

Lydia chillin'..as you see..she is a tumb sucker

Baba and Lydia snuggling after medical exam

Lydia being measured and weighed

Lydia is getting her throat looked at

Calm before the storm...before medical exam..these are most of the kiddos in our group

Streets in Nanning, China

Flowers from the People's Park in Nanning

Kids on a field trip at the People's Park--they were so friendly!

The UFO ride at the People's Park

Shayla and Lydia hanging out at the People's Park

People's Park

Pucker up!

Nanning is known as the "Green City"

People's Park

Getting ready to head out to People's Park

Baba feeding precious Lydia

Isn't she cute?

After a long day at the Museum, someone needed some chill time! Isn't she cute. This is all I have right now...sorry. Most of our pictures of Lydia are on video and we cannot download from this video camera onto our computer.

I promise we will take some pictures today. :)

Yesterday was fun. We went to the Ethnic Museum and Garden. It was pretty neat. The garden was beautiful. It almost looked like a little village. I have attached some pics of the garden. We also rented a stroller. Not sure if Lydia has ever been in one before, but she did well. She is coming out more and more each day. We are a bit concerned with healthy attachment and food issues. I know that both of these will come in time. She likes the ladies and will go to any woman that reaches her arms to her. On the other hand, she does not like the men. Pastor, we need to work on this prior to baptism! She is having a hard time attaching to John. As long as I am not in the room, she does fine. So, I find myself hiding in the bathroom for periods of time so that they can get that time alone together. This morning, Momma is going to fill out some paperwork with our FTIA coordinator and BaBa and Lydia are going to have some good one on one time.

For dinner last night all 5 families and our coordinator went out for an amazing Chinese meal. John and I tried rabbit on a stick and it was wonderful. Lydia did very well too. She just loves pork congee. It's not bad. Formula and congee is all she has had for the past 18 months so we have a lot of work to do in this area. Last night at dinner she just sparkled with personality! John and I have been teaching her "kisses" and "high 5" and sharing...among other things. She is catching on quickly and at the dinner table last night she started giving me kisses when I was feeding her! Then after each bite, she would point her finger and touch my lips so that I could kiss her finger! Then I would give her the rattle and stacking cups. She would give each one to me and I would say "thank you" and then I would give it back to her..saying "thank you". First time for all these things! It's wonderful being parents.

On the way back it was so neat to see Nanning, China at night. It was bustling with lots of action! People were everywhere; hanging out, playing games, etc. It's a unique city; one like we have never seen before. The Guangxi Province is one of the poorest provinces in China. It has a bunch of community feel and the people are so friendly. Can you imagine having 5 American families with 5 Chinese babies that look a lot more like them than us...we get lots of looks..but all in all..it's been an awesome experience.

On another note--Lydia did finally have a BM! After 3 days! I know, I am officially a parent now.

We leave for Guangzhou, China this evening. We should be there around 8pm China time.

Will post more pictures of Lydia...later!

Love and hugs to you from the Supers!

Last night in Nanning, China

Good morning Nanning, China!

Whew! With the Lord's help, we made it through yesterday. Lydia 's fever finally broke and I am doing much better too. Lydia slept very well last night. She occassionally will look up to see if we are still around and wimper a bit. She needs that reassurance. Assurance she did not have before.

She woke up around 6am this morning and took a bit of her bottle..and now she is back to sleep. She is not much of an eater, but I hope that will change. They say it does. Figures, I love to cook and she doesn't love to eat! :) I told John that I have to get the Pork Congee recipe from the hotel. She loves that! The other night when I was feeding it to her, she said, "Oooohhhhh."

Her personality is finally starting to come out. She gives us these small grins every now and then. When we first received her she was very lithargic. We figure that at the orphange, she wasn't one of those babies that cried a bunch so she didn't much attention. She is very alert and observant. She is one of those babies that likes the usual food. Nothing different, otherwise she will fuss like you wouldn't believe. You should've seen us trying to feed applesauce to her yesterday! I wish I could've gotten that on video. Goodness, you would think that it was the end of the world! :) Patience...this is all new to her. New smells, new food, new people, new everything.

Today we are going to a Folk Art Museum and other things. Hopefully tonight I will post some pictures of Lydia's home town..well...sort of. Her "home town" is 5 hours away. I think we are close enough. :)

Well, that is all for now. Got to get Lydia up to start our day.

THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!!!!

A bit under the weather today....

Good Wednesday morning from China!

I am taking a moment to blog while I can. John and Lydia are having some Baba and daughter time.

We were supposed to go sightseeing this morning, but John and I decided not to go. We have had a rough night with Lydia. She was restless all night (not the night before...she slept almost 11 hours straight!) and she had a fever when she woke up. I think she is teething. Her back teeth looks like they may be coming in. Poor thing. She has been very clingy and sobby since she hasn't felt too well..so we are getting extra hugs today. :)

She is attaching very well to me so we are working on attachment to Baba today. They seem to be doing pretty good. :)

I too, have been a bit under the weather. Thank goodness we brought antibotics for the both of us. It has come in handy.

Needless to say, it's been a rough one..but we have been strengthened by the Lord.

Please continue to pray for us...your prayers are MUCH appreciated. :)

Lots of hugs and love going out to you all!

ps- one week from today we will be home...we cannot wait!

It's official....Lydia is ours!

Today we went to the Official Register. This is where we have several interviews, complete some more paperwork, and after all that, they pronounce our adoption "official".

We had a small ceremony and that was it. We are officially parents to Lydia!

Afterwards, we all went to Wal-Mart with our kiddos to pick up some items. Okay, I must confess this experience was quite interesting. The Wal-Mart in Nanning, China has SEVERAL floors! It was a bit overwhelming! Lydia did such a wonderful job at her first shopping experience and we are so proud of her!

Here is also a picture of the 5 families with us. We are all very happy and at this point...exhausted!

Until next time...it's nap time!

Finally....

Well, words cannot express what just happened, so I will let our pictures do the talking.

PRAISE THE LORD FOR HE IS GOOD!