Isn't it ironic

Isn't it ironic that Sarah is from a Northern Province that gets cold and we go there in the winter and Emily is from the subtropical Southern Province and we go there in summer?

Isn't it ironic that Sarah was a feather weight and she bonded with her Baba who is over 6' tall and Emily can wear a size 5T and she chose me, a 5' 1", no spring chickie to carry her constantly.  

We tried a stroller today and she screamed and climbed out. Her feet can reach the ground so there is no safe way of keeping her in it.  Sarah has been such a good girl on the trip and so very understanding.  She is the best big sister!  She had Emily laughing and feeding us both Cheerios today.  We were having a very good time with lots of smiles and laughs until Baba returned and then the tears were back.  Emily is doing very well considering it is not even 24 hours.  She is sad and still looking for Mawah. 

Guy is having a difficult time with communicating with the locals and I think it is hysterical.  People are speaking Cantonese so our Mandarin is not helping.  It is a shame that all our days in Chinese school have left us unable to order take out.  I had to order the food in the restaurant the other day and today he tried to order take out and when the woman pointed to the door he left.  I am sure they had a good laugh. 

I know stop talking and add pictures!  We have been having some trouble adding photos. 

FW: Day 2

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From: gwlareid@msn.com
To: gwlareid.eaxiubei@blogger.com
Subject: Day 2
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 02:48:53 -0400

Emily slept well last night, it took a while to get her to sleep.  She fell asleep laying on Linda.  Sarah on the other hand was up at 3 AM wanting to go for breakfast.  Today we went to the civil affairs office and the notary office, so Emily is officially ours!!  Down time this afternoon, trying to stay cool, hot and humid today.  Emily was brushing her teeth by herself this morning, fed herself at lunch, she had congee and noodles.  She is still not sure of me and cries when I get too close, she is very clingy to Linda.   

Tried to get food outside the hotel today, not good.  The first place had no picture menus so I could not order anything.  The second place was worse, they had picture menus but trying to explain take out did not work well, the woman pointed to the door while yelling something, not really yelling more like screaming, so I left.  Linda said she probably was saying "do you want this to go?" but that's not what it felt like.  So, back to the hotel for food.  

Today we met some people from New Hope PA today, they adopted a little girl with cleft lip, they will be on our flight home next week.  Another couple we met is from Canada, their consulate is in Beijing so we will not see them after Friday.  Went to Walmart for supplies today, everything said Made in the USA, just kidding.  We are stuck in the room as it is so miserable outside, high in the upper 90s and it rains a few times a day so the humidity is around 90 to 100%.  I guess the people living here must get used to it.  

   

She's here!!!

Emily arrived at 2:30 on Monday June 25 2012.  She is BIG!!!!  She is playing with Sarah right now, helping herself to Cheerios.  Sarah is doing very well as the big sister, very helpful.  Sarah will not be the big sister for long, Emily is about 1" shorter and probably weighs at least as much as Sarah if not more.  Linda is doing very well now that Emily is here, more relaxed and very nurturing.  Linda did get thrown up on, congee was on the menu for lunch today.  They were feeding her a lot for lunch.  She was crying in the beginning but is doing much better (Emily that is).  Emily is learning how to open and close the Cheerio container by herself and likes watching Sarah dance.  She has learned to push the button on a toy that plays music and watch Sarah dance.  

Sarah handled everything very well, only a little sad at one point.  Sarah was very excited before Emily got here, she wanted to know when Emily was going to be here.  Sarah said she is very happy that she has a sister,  we will see if she stills feels that way in a year or two.

Emily is now speaking but she speaks Cantonese, and all of Chinese language classes we took were for Mandarin. But we did learn the signs for her needing the bathroom.

We will send pictures tomorrow and will update our progress, right now it's the calm before the storm when it comes to her emotions.

 

more pictures

Day of rest

We survived yesterday's travel and have today to rest.  We ventured out to look for bottled water and learned that you do not go anywhere without a poncho and umbrella.  It started with a little drizzle and then it poured, filled the street with water very quickly and we took cover under an awning.  Of course at that point Sarah needed a restroom and we have no way of communicating.  Our Mandarin skills are not good enough and the local dialect is Cantonese.  Our facilitator does not go everywhere with us here so we have to try to mime our way through conversations which is rather hysterical.  We went into a bank and asked for restrooms but gave up and walked back to the hotel in the rain.  Of course now the sun is out.  It is very humid here and the air gets thick quickly.  The rain does cool things down a bit but it is subtropical and not what we are used to.  We are getting lots of strange looks from the locals and will be getting more tomorrow when we are parenting two Chinese girls.  

I will try to add a few pictures when I can keep my eyes open longer when sitting.

We have finally Arrived

It is 11:30 pm Saturday and we have finally arrived at our hotel in Nanning!  We have been up since 6:00 am Friday morning and we are beyond exhausted.  We thank God for getting us her with no throw up or bathroom mishaps.  After our 13 hour flight from Newark to Beijing we had a 5 hour layover before we could depart for Nanning which was another 3.5 hour flight.  Sarah was an amazing traveler and may have even done better than the two of us.  She did get to nap when we couldn't but she was truly amazing.  Our guide has let us know we will be meeting our other amazing little one on Monday.

Now we must sleep!

What's in a name

For those of you that may be wondering Mei Mei means younger sister in Mandarin.  Emily's Chinese name is Xiu Bei and her foster Mom calls her Bei Bei (bay bay).