Busy Day
Whew - a very busy day. We began at the hotel; this is Liann snuggling while we wait with Uncle Zhou.



Then we hopped on a bus that took us into the heart of Guangzhou to the handcrafts museum. It was really amazing; rooms full of sculpture, painting, and my personal favorite, the silk embroidery painting. Each "painting" can take from 2 months to a year to complete, depending on the size and complexity. The thread just shimmers on the canvas. It is something to behold. The building itself was also really interesting, with borders painted and sculpted with Chinese fables.



Next it was onto the Jade Market, which was also next to the Temple of Five Hundred Buddhas. We were able to have one of the monks bless Liann while we were here. We were the only ones in our travel group to take up the offer of a blessing; my thought was, I'm not about to turn down a blessing for my baby, whatever the source, and also, I look at it as a blessing from her homeland. The temple was incredible, row upon row of Buddhas. At one point (I never said I was bright. . .) I asked Zhou, "How many Buddhas are in here?" Duh. The blessing itself was very moving, but very LOOONG. Kind of like a Catholic wedding mass, where you start to pray for it to end. The monk sang several prayers, then flicked some water on Liann with a leaf, then sang some more prayers. There was a fly that kept landing on my leg - I think it was one of the Buddhas sent to test me.



Then it was off to the pearl market. The pearl market is in a mall big as Richmond Mall filled with nothing but bead and pearl and gems and other jewelry makings. I was in heaven.



We celebrated the success of commerce by lunching at Pizza Hut, where my favorite image was diners building elaborate stacked towers of watermelon chunks - they are only allowed one trip to the salad bar, so people very creatively work around that restriction by building very tall engineered fruit structures.

Tomorrow should be much more relaxed. We won't know what to do with ourselves. . .

Medicals
After a good night's sleep, we were all rarin' to go this morning. We left our nice air conditioned room, stepped outside, and the heat and humidity was like an assault. BAM! My hair, which was in a braid, still somehow managed to completely frizz out; within seconds our clothes were damp with sweat. Absolutely amazing.



So our first stop this morning was the medical examination needed for Liann and the other babies to get their Visas to come home. We had something of a minor miracle occur in that there was nobody else in the waiting room but us, so it was a very quick in-and-out thing. Zhou said he's never seen that happen before. We did find out that our daughter, heretofore who has not cried for more than a few seconds, is capable of a long, loud sustained wail. She did not like having her temperature taken or being weighed, just like her brother. She is 22.2 lbs. But she was pronounced hearty and healthy, so that's done.



After a good nap, the girls gathered in our room for a play date while the daddies left for Zhou's room to fill out paperwork. As far as toy-taking goes, Liann is more of the takee than the taker, but she can still voice her opinion with a loud short "MAH" that you can hear all the way down the hall.



We went to a place called Lucy's for dinner with some of the other families, which serves Western food (although Greg and I still ordered Chinese) and plays sad 70 and 80s pop songs - it's a little jarring. In the middle of the meal, while we were sitting outside (under an umbrella), there was suddenly a deluge of rain. Didn't get too wet, and Liann stayed dry, thank goodness.

Tomorrow we're off to the Pearl and Jade Markets to continue our efforts to boost China's economy. Greg is in heaven; a can of beer here cost approximately 25 cents.

Onto Guangzhou
I'm writing this entry from our room at the Old Victory Hotel in Guangzhou, where we've been for about an hour or so. Let me tell you about the day.

Chongqing was rainy, so our morning was spent basically packing and playing with Liann. It was a good tag team approach, with one person being silly with her, and the other person throwing stuff in suitcases willy-nilly. We visited one of the other families and let Liann play with Erica for awhile; they had all their things neatly stacked in Ziplocs in their suitcase - Greg and I were like, "Wow. . . ."



Then it was checkout time, onto the bus and off to the airport in Chongqing. Liann had many many admirers at the airport, all of whom wanted to pat her hand and tell her "Hello." They like to practice their English, but I got many smiles at my sad attempts to say "Ni Hao."



Once on the airplane, we had about 5 families with babies all sitting in one section in Economy. Greg and I were in a middle row of 4; the man sitting on the end of the row began to look a little agitated and by the end of the first scream from the baby in the row in front of us, he had bailed. Ostensibly to another seat somewhere further back, although Greg swears he ran to the escape hatch.

Liann was just a total dream baby during the flight. Looked all around, never cried at takeoff or landing, danced on my lap and flirted criminally. Greg on the other hand, spilled mulberry juice (PURPLE!)all over the crotch of his shorts, while I tried to contain hysterical giggles like a kid laughing in church (Bad wife)throughout the entire flight, because Greg was NOT finding the humor in it. But oh my goodness it was funny.



So now we are at the Old Victory Hotel (yes, Virginia, there is a New Victory as well). It is bee-yoo-tee-ful. The halls are narrow with these big brass sconces and deep wood doors - it feels like you're in Prague or something; and the rooms are humungous, with views overlooking the river (we're on Shamian Island). All this for $50 a night.

Tomorrow is Liann's medical exam for her via, so SHE should have a fun time.

Where We Meet Some Pandas
Well, now that the girls have been with us all a couple days, the families are starting to re-emerge from the isolationist shell we’ve all been in while bonding. The differences in all of them are astounding; some of them are beginning to crawl, some to pull to stand. Liann is still stable as a boulder; but she’s discovered she has knees and can bounce, and she gets all happy when she bounces down and comes back up while holding onto one of us.

This morning we went to the zoo where they have not one, but FIVE pandas. Of the five, they all did tricks. Two decided to poop in our general direction, one stood up against his wall, and two rolled around wrestling bamboo branches and eating leaves. They’re remarkably adept.



Sadly, Liann spend most of the time with her eyes at half-mast, bumping her head on Greg and saying in baby, “Must. Stay. Awake. . . Can’t. Miss. Anything.” But sleep won out and she slept in the Baby Bjorn on Greg for a good 45 minutes.



Because she slept this morning, she was NOT interested in having her afternoon nap, so we took her swimming in the pool. She likes to splash. Let’s leave it at that. Then we went a-hunting for a set of computer headphones and speaker so we could attempt to use Net Phone. We’ve had a terrible time with our Pandaphone that we rented, both receiving calls AND calling out. So we’ve been reduced several days to calling on the hotel phone, which is a little pricey. It’s been the only blip in an otherwise perfect trip.

For dinner, we ordered room service with several of the other families and got all the girls together to “play.” Liann, who still is not terribly mobile, sat like an empress watching her court and played with her toys and ate her Cheerios. Memo to self: Must see if Cheerios will pay us for all the product placement we’ve done for them while in China.

Tomorrow we fly to Guangzhou and start the last leg of the trip. Less than a week and we’ll be home with Will.

Another Fine Day
Another fine day in Chongqing. Liann continues to come more and more out of her shell every day. Today she began to imitate us more – she will kiss us – if we bring our lips close to hers she sticks her tongue out. AND – the big milestone – she laughed. Greg got the first one by tickling her (which as of yesterday had gotten no response), and then I got some more by doing silly animal noises and games. She’s still remarkably easy-going; some of the other families have babies with very spicy tempers, and we see them looking wistfully in our direction at times.



As for the day itself, today was HOT and steamy, much like I’d figured on for this region. We went to the Three Gorges Dam Museum as a group in the morning. The dam is a massive undertaking, with the total duration of construction lasting 17 years; the whole thing is scheduled to be finished in 2009, at which point a number of cities, including a vast portion of Fuling, will be underwater (its inhabitants will be relocated to higher ground). It was a fascinating museum. After that, we went to a tea house and learned about different types of tea and had a mini tea ceremony. Then this afternoon, after Liann’s nap, we went shopping again for sundries such as formula and baby food. All in all, a very mellow day.

First Family Days
Well, it’s in the wee hours of the morning and I can’t sleep, so I’ll take advantage of the quiet and catch you all up on the last 36 hours. First, thank you all for writing your e-mails and keeping us posted; it means a lot to us to know that you’re watching our trip. Be aware that I am able to post to the diary but cannot actually look at the website itself, so any goofs will be fixed when I get home. Hopefully, all Liann’s pictures came out okay.

Okay, catch up time. First, a little about Chongqing. It is a beautiful city, very hilly, with cleaner buildings than Beijing (i.e. less evidence of the air pollution on the building walls), and much less sprawling than Beijing, although as you recall from an earlier post, most of Chongqing’s population is made up outside the city itself. Our hotel is stunning; Greg and I are clearly outclassed by the joint, although Liann looks perfect in it.




So yesterday we traveled two hours to Fuling to the orphanage. The countryside is so beautiful, with great spans of green hills and mountains, dotted with rural houses. Fuling is a hilly city as well; the orphanage lies down at the bottom of a steep hill. I actually did not realize we were there, until someone pointed out the crowd of people standing at the gates of the orphanage. Apparently, adoption days always pull a crowd of locals, who smile and wave at the babies as they leave. It’s very sweet.




We had thought that we would go into the babies’ crib room and very systematically be called to receive our babies. Zhou also had to check on the next groups’ babies, so as a group of them was brought out to the courtyard, I thought it was the next month’s babies ready for their pictures. Then Zhou asked, “Does anybody recognize this baby? It’s one of ours!” with a big smile on his face, and then more and more of the babies began appearing with their caregivers in the courtyard, all wearing the same yellow-green outfit. I spotted Liann pretty quickly and walked over to her and asked “Ai Yu?” to the caregiver, who nodded and began saying “Mama” to her and pointing to me. Liann repeated “Mama” and looked at me, but began to cry a little. Greg came over then and held her; she went immediately to him and began to reach for his face and pat his cheeks. Definitely going to be a daddy’s girl, I think. Then I was able to hold her, and there were no more tears. I think all of her caregivers came over at one point and held her and talked to her; it is clear she was very loved by them, and I was happy that they were able to say goodbye to her and she remained okay. Really, for the most part, all the babies in our group did beautifully; a couple of the babies were very sad and cried, but I think all of them had rallied by the time we left the orphanage.

We had lunch in Fuling and fed our babies for the first time. I must tell you, Liann likes to eat. She was DIVING for the spoon of steamed egg that Greg was feeding her, and telling him in no uncertain terms when he was too slow with a sharp babbled syllable. It was a riot.

Then we traveled back to Chongqing to get our adoption decree and have our family picture taken. We had a lot of wait time in the meeting room in the office to start to get to know our babies. Liann seems to be a pretty good-natured baby; some of the other babies were mightily entranced by her key ring and tried to grab it; she would reach for it, but then move to another toy. It did not seem to be a big deal to her. Give it time. More about Liann – she’s very curious and inquisitive, and shows evidence of it by either sticking out her tongue and curling it up over her upper lip, or sucking in her upper lip; she loved riding on the bus and looking out the window. She also was not bothered a bit by her bath (which I have read is often a sticking point), but liked the water. She does smile, but she’s such a cheeky girl that she can’t smile very wide. It’s adorable. And she seems to be the talker of the bunch; she’s got this deep booming voice and loves to say “mamama” and “dadadada.” Greg and I are clearly hooked.

This morning we went shopping at a local department store for baby items – diapers, extra blanket, etc. It basically looks like a Kaufmann’s, except that there’s a drug store and a grocery attached as well. You pick your items, get a ticket for them, take the ticket to the cashier, pay, take the ticket back and get your item. It was a lot of fun just doing something local and normal. We had many people approach us and pat Liann’s arm or make “cheek” blow up faces and smile. One elderly woman approached us and scolded us for having her too warm! (Quite a switch – normally people are scolded for keeping them uncovered). We figure this afternoon we’ll wander to the bookstore after giving her lunch.

A Day of Uniting
Okay, everyone – This is going to be a very short text, because (a) we are exhausted beyond all measure, and (b) we know you only want to see pictures of our newest addition anyway. I promise to post more about this wonderful day tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures of Liann Aiyu Downs!

The Temple of Heaven and other sights
Well, today was a jam-packed day, and as I sit here on the plane to Chongqing, I feel very lucky to have been able to see these parts of Beijing and look forward to being able to show them someday to our children.

We started off the day at the Temple of Heaven, a mammoth park with different pavilions and temples hundreds of years old. The park was just lovely, with grand courtyards abutting copses of cypress trees. The scale of the temples was so grand, and the designs so symmetrical and balanced that without knowing any history of the place, I immediately felt joyful and uplifted. But even better than the design was the chance to see so many local people enjoying the parks. We saw groups of all ages doing tai chi, dancing, playing hacky-sack or badminton, playing music in the pavilion, and doing water calligraphy on the courtyard squares. People truly enjoy each other's company here, and seem to have a lot of fun being together. It was one of the most special places I've ever been to of all the things I've been blessed to see. Oh yes, and Greg discovered heretofore untapped haggling skills in purchasing souvenirs; we may have created a monster.







Following the Temple of Heaven, we went to Tianenman Square and the Forbidden City. Our guide Zhou was actually present in Tianenman Square on June 4, 1989 and gave us his account of that day. He believes that changes have been made for the better since that time. The Forbidden City has 999 rooms, which were at one time occupied by the emperor and his concubines. Again, it was as much fun people-watching as seeing the architecture. There is a great deal of scaffolding and renovation going on right now, I would presume in preparation for the Olympics in 2008.



After the Forbidden City we went to a Silk Factory where we saw silkworms do their work. Oh yes, and bought outfits for Will and Liann.

After lunch we trekked to the airport and as I write this we are in the air heading for Chongqing. I have butterflies in my stomach thinking about meeting Liann tomorrow. It's hard to conceive (no pun intended) that such a huge life-changing event will happen so suddenly, without the benefit of the gentle transition of having gut-wrneching contractions every two minutes for a day. Say some prayers for us that Liann isn't too traumatized by the whole event.

And on that cliff-hanger of an ending, I'll sign off until tomorrow.

P.S. With our airline meal tonight, we had a Fuling pickle! A good omen, and tasty too.

The Great Traffic Jam of China
Well, we got into the hotel last night about 2 am, beyond tired. The hotel is lovely, big spacious rooms and firm mattresses. Mmm. However, because ALL of China is one time zone, the sun is UP in Beijing by 5:15 am. But the few hours sleep felt like gold.

After a Western style breakfast buffet at the hotel, we were off on a 1 hour ride to the Great Wall of China. Impressions of Beijing: Huge, sprawling, LOTS of construction; traffic is CRAZY. Greg, who generally likes to drive in new places, has vowed never.

However, as soon as you leave the city, these absolutely stunning mountains rise out of the mist/haze; green carpets of trees on red rock. And then there's the Great Wall. Fast facts about the Wall - construction began in the fifth century BC and continued to the 16th century. It covers over 6000 km across China. We were on the Badaling Pass, where most of the tourists go. What a workout; there are stretches where you're walking up 40 degree slopes. It was glorious. The weather was perfect, about 80 degrees with a nice breeze. It's definitely one of those experiences that no matter how hard you try with the pictures, it will not equal the live experience of seeing that structure juxtaposed with those stunning mountains.




After the Wall, we travelled to a cloisonne factory which was attached to a Friendship Store. I've never been a huge fan of cloisonne, but seeing how labor intensive and how many different variations I've never known about, I gained a new appreciation for it. As evidenced by the souvenirs we purchased at the Friendship Store, doing our part to bolster the Chinese economy.



We ate lunch at a restaurant adjoining the cloisonne factory. It was fabulous. Dishes kept arriving on a lazy susan, with delicate jasmine tea. The highlight for me was the soup - peppery but not hot, with bits of sundried tomato in it. And amazing fish.

On the way back to the hotel, we got caught up in a traffic jam. Someone had had an accident on the highway and traffic was tied up a mile back. But it was an entertainment experience in itself watching the traffic flow creatively from the three lanes as shown by the painted highway lines to the 4 and 5 and 6 lanes created by the enterprising drivers. And I was very impressed that with all the merging and flow, it all remained very civil. Very few honks were exchanged.

After a short rest, we left for a Chinese acrobatic show, which (between the lengthy periods where my eyes had involuntarily closed) was very well done and quite entertaining.



In thirty-six hours, we will cease to be merely tourists and be that most fearsome of combinations, the tourist-parent!

A Day in the Air
Friday, June 3 6:45 am (feels like Ohio time Thurs. 6:45 pm)

As I write this, we've been in the air for our LA to China flight for approximately 2 hours and I have to say, it hasn't been bad at all. I will try to jot how I feel about 11 hours from now - we land in Shanghai in about 12 hours.

The day started out a little stressfully. Despite Greg having called to make our Continental seat assignments, we checked in to find that the flight was overbooked and we had no seats, so were technically flying standby, along with one other EAC couple. EAC was called and you could practically hear them go into full-alert mode - Bwoop, bwoop - sirens blaring. I was fully prepared to cry on cue, but fortunately, there were sufficient volunteers and we got seats with no problem.

Landing in LA, it was overcast, and my immediate impression was - "I have to pee, my head hurts, and I'm hungry." One bathroom, three Excedrin, and a fish taco later, all was right with my world again.

We got onto the China Eastern flight uneventfully, and here I sit, making my first entry. The flight so far has been fine. Our EAC mates all seem very nice; everyone is as excited as we are. We all stared at the toddlers and babies on this flight going to China with their families and "Aaaaw'd" as one.

6/3 - 5:40 pm (5:40 am Ohio time)

Well, we have about an hour to go until we land in Shanghai, and even then it's not done - then we have a 2 hour flight to Beijing. But having weathered 11 hours in the air, I have to say, I thought I was going to feel a lot worse than I do. The plane has actually been fine. The seats don't have the little tvs, but they have POWER, so that I could plug in my Palm Pilot and play marathon Scrabble with Greg. Current tally: Greg 1, Toddie 1, Tie 1. We did manage to sleep a few hours as well. Food was healthy and yummy. So until tomorrow, zai jian (goodbye).


Saturday 7:00 am

Just a quick update – we do not have our cell phone yet, Penny and Bill and Will, we will call as soon as we get the phone and/or figure out how to use the international line from our room!