HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are home safely and Friday the 13th didn't make us have trouble... although it through us some loups we almost lost some luggage and we spilled things alot. But other than that we are ok. We are so happy to be home!

A fun day

Sharlet, Bethany, and Quinn

Having tea

The Chen house

Sharlet and I infront of a bush cutting before entering the Chen house

the trimmed bushes

We went on a subway and I was amazed. The subway is really clean, no graffiti, no dirt. The subway is behind a glass wall so you can still see, but no dirt from the train or things flying out. In the rush to catch the subway we all got separated. My mom and I and a few other people got on the subway and the door closed. All we could do was watch the subway doors close. Our interpreter/guide Zhou was giving us hand signals, like putting up 2 fingers then showing another finger to symbolize getting off at the second stop. I wasn't worried the worst thing that would happen is that we see them zip by and they all wave and we have to get back on. The subway took us to the Chen Ancestral House. Chen is my Aunt Yvonnes last name. The Chen house is very beautiful. We had some traditional tea including oolong tea, jinsing, and jasmine. It was really fun to have tea, my favorite kind was oolong. Charlotte is practically 5 and she is one of my friends from the trip. We were playing hopscotch with a flower blossom while at the Chen House. After seeing the Chen House we went to take a group picture in front of an indoor waterfall at the White Swan. We walked around to some of the shops at the hotel. I used my money to buy a panda bear necklace for 90 yuan. All day we have been seeing couples get there pictures taken in wedding dresses and tuxedos in the park area outside our hotel. We have been told that some couples wait as much as five years to get there wedding picture done. In the evening we went to an Italian restaurant. We are looking forward to getting home and seeing our friends and family. You don't realize how much you will miss the people in your life until you have been away for a while.

Doctor Appointment... The First

Quinn went to her first doctor appointment, it was very different in a way... there was 3 rooms with 3 doctors each a different stage in the appointment. The first one we went to was an eye and ear exam. How they tested the ears was squeaking a toy in her ear, which made me think doesn't that hurt? But Quinn did not show signs of that. Questions and answers were very fast and written down, the eyes where tested with a light and a toy moving back and forth. The second stage was more of a physical exam, Quinn had her head measured, her feet where looked at, legs, belly and her overall appearance. The nurse wanted to see her walk and say mama and baba. (dad) She completed both tasks in a breeze. She then went to the third exam and this was a weight and height exam, she had gained two pounds in a week! Although this was fast, it is good that she is putting on weight. They measured her and we didn't get to see what the height was, but they also measured her feet, that was the last of the three exams. All in all she was just wonderful, she did what she was told and didn't shed a tear! She just amazed us, we all really thought that she would cry once... or twice.

A Laid Back Day

We all didn't feel well so we just stayed at the hotel room that day, watched movies in English, on the movie channel and really just regrouped ourselves but tomorrow we will be out and about, ready to explore. That is really just it. Quinn had a hard night coughing and we didn't want to risk it and I was OK for alittle bite in the hotel room but then into the bathroom I ran I felt better after that but I wasn't going to risk it either. Quinn will cry for hours in bed from a dream about something and cry and cry we feel so bad it either was a night mare or just a dream about her old home and everything she left it is really heart breaking to see her cry for that and we cant help her in any way other than to just comfort her in our arms. but she is asleep during the crying and you can never tell if she is really awake or not but she will cry in her sleep for hours and hours. It brings me to tears. She is really a sweet baby.

Walking around town

Everyone at the pearl market

Puppies at the street market. Yes I wanted to buy one but my mom said no how would we fit it on the plane?

Looking down the street market the spice side

Mommy, Daddy, Quinn, and Bethany.

Today has been fun, we met up with all the other families, which we have been longing to do. All the kids are beautiful and handsome, yes we do have a family that adopted a little boy. But it is really a beautiful island, everyone is really nice and it is just wonderful. We went to a street market with all kinds of spices and dried fruits and vegtables. Our guide, Zhou, bought some chesnuts from a street vendor who was cooking them in a wok. There was a section of the street that had pet store type goods, it was really very cool. That was where I viewed, the puppies in crates and the fish were in styrafoam boxes and birds in cages. It wasn't that different than an open pet store. The spices where all in bins and big sacks (including mushrooms as big as a garbage can lid)that you could buy. We then went to the pearl market and my mom got Quinn and I REAL pearl necklaces with matching braclets. We won't get them until I am 10/now or 11 or 12 or 13 or 14 or 15 or 16, or maybe now, and the same with Quinn. Tomorrow we will go to Quinns medical check.

Flying To Guangzhou

We went down to eat breakfast, then went up and then down to go wander the hotel, but Quinn thought that we where going to go outside sense that was our routine for the last few days. It was so loud! She threw a tantrum and screamed and hung onto the door handle, then just to calm her down before we go on the plane ride, we didn't want to put her on a plane like that we took her outside. But my mom regrets it she is like "Oh I hope I didn't teach her a bad habit!" and now she has said that will never happen again. Quinn is a very good traveler, she slept all the way there and woke up when we got there. She is happy and the rooms are very nice! There is a living room and a king bed, with a small bathroom. THE BEDS ARE SOFT!!!!

The Zoo

Mommy, Daddy, Bethany, and Quinn

Mommy and Quinn

Daddy and Quinn

Aunt Mary and Quinn

Ostrich

Ducks and their baby's

Monkeys

Penguins

Yak

Fish

Hippo

Quinn brushing her teeth

Today we went to the zoo, Quinn was in her stroller, but we took her out just when we knew she couldn't see the animals. She is such a sweet a baby! We saw the rooster, Quinn's sign. Also we saw two tigers! That is my sign, we saw monkeys, snakes, hippos, donkey, wolfs, leopard, pandas, and ducks/swans. We also got to feed coy fish, Quinn tried to eat the fish food though. That was a really cool experience for Quinn I think. She smiled and laughed alot while we where there. Her smiles can lighten anyone up. After we went to the zoo, we went to pizza hut, for a American meal. Our interpreter Mary went with our driver to a Chinese restaurant for a Chinese meal. She then meet us back at Pizza Hut, then we went back to the hotel. Our day was low key and fun!! It had finally stopped raining today so we really lucked out! Quinn also wanted to brush her teeth and she was really good at it. Quinn has grown and made leaps and bounds in these couple days. I am amazed! She talks and her face is filling in, she has gained a couple pounds, and is becoming a three year old more and more every day!!!! She started out as a little rose bud, and is blooming so fast. WE LOVE HER SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!

See you all soon!

Our adventure out

The Tengwang Pavilion

The ying and yang sign in front of the Pavilion

Yangtze River in front of the Pavilion

Quinn and daddy in front of the tiles in the Pavilion

The tiles are hand put in, in the Pavilion

Today we went to the Tengwang Pavilion, it has a history of over 1300 years, no.1 of the three famous Pavilions in the South of the Yangtze River. It was just beautiful. The inside was just wonderful, Wang Bo lived in this ancient palace. Wang Bo, wrote the most famous poem in China.

Quinn is learning English so fast she knows, baby, dog, baba (daddy), and mama (mom). She is so wonderful! she can tell us when she wants something and smiles. She wanted her nails painted blue, like her sister (Bethany), (me) and she blowed on them and smiled, and she loves them! It was kind of a bonding thing between Quinn and I. It was a fun filled day, tomorrow we are going to the zoo.

Her Second Day Home And ADOPTING YOU!!!!!

The Adoption center. This is where we got Quinn, in this very room! There will be alot of memories in this room. And alot of little kids lives changed forever.

Quinn made it through the night, YEAH!! We where all really happy about that. She learned how to use a sippie cup, give kisses, and blow bubbles. She has a whirl wind of an appetite, when we where at the restaurant eating lunch, we asked for WARM milk, the woman gave us hot milk, we didn't let her drink it when it was hot... but then we did, when it had cooled. Then she ended up getting a stomach ache and throwing up at the restaurant. We then immediately went back up to the room and took her temperature, it was 99.2, so we laid her down and turned everything off and she fell right asleep. Hopefully that will help take the fever down. She woke up and was as happy as a sunflower, the fever had gone down! We went and finished all the paper work, and adopted her, we have the certificate stating that she is ours legally! We where so joyed when they handed it to us.They gave us a little gift and we gave them one! She still is not an American citizen, she will become that when she sets foot on American soil, but at least she is ours.

Then we went to Wal*Mart which was... OK! I ended up getting an upset stomach as we ere headed back to the hotel. But while we where at Wal*Mart we got her some shoes and slippers. We didn't realize it but when we put the shoes on they SQUEAKED ! Quinn smiled and laughed a lot. She uses a spoon in both hands equally as well so she may be ambidextrous... We think. See you all soon!

THE BIGGEST MOMENT!!!!!

Quinn with daddy in the first couple hours.

The clothes she arrived in.

Quinn and I on the first day.

Quinn at adoption center seeing us for the first time, alittle... VERY upset.

Today we were so excited, we woke up at 7:00, and ate breakfast till 8:00 then prepared ourselves to see Quinn! We went down to the lobby to meet Mary, she was going to take us to meet Quinn at the adoption center. We met Mary and began to walk down the streets of Nanchang, it was not as busy as Beijing. When we arrived we went to the 26th floor and there waiting for the elevator was Quinn, with a male holding her, she did not go to the orphange, she came straight from the foster mom. She was crying hysterically, and not wanting to come to us. We handed her to my aunt Mary, and she took to her right away and quieted down. It took her an hour and a half for her to warm up, then she went to my dad and fell asleep on his chest. She has definitely been outside with no gloves because her hands are suntanned. She is so wonderful we gave her a ball and she just loves it! She smiles constantly. I put some barrets in her hair and she looked at herself and gave the cutest laugh. We think she has a bite of a cold? We took a video of her playing with the ball she will give high fives with direction you can say "hi five" and she will give you one. She has very pretty eyes she is very cute. All in all I wouldn't trade her for anything. She mimics and can say, milk, eat, hot, drink, more, and cookie. She is just wonderful she will look at herself in the mirror and stick her tounge out and just laugh she is the perfect little sister.

Hello we arrived at Chuqinn's province today. We met Mary, our local guide. Everything seems so real, we have a crib, baby potty, a child's wash tub, and a stroller, in our hotel room. The hotel is very pretty! There is pool on the 4th floor, and chandeliers in the entrance, then there is a winding stair case, and 29 some odd floors. Tomorrow we will go across the street to a adoption center, and then get Quinn there.

The Great Wall

Today we went to the great wall and walked the whole right side. There where sections of the great wall but all connected at one tower, there was a right side and a left side. The left side was steeper and harder to walk, so I and my mom and dad went to the right and so did the group.

This was very hard at times the steepness of the wall and just the long walk it took us pretty much an hour to walk the whole right side of the wall. The little kids who are 4-5 walked it. Zach and Sharlet walked the whole wall by themselves, I was amazed there little legs walked that long of aways.They where really excited and not tired, they wanted to walk it and where determined that they where going to! We went to the jade factory and I got a tiger pendent, the tiger is my year. They taught us how to tell real jade from fake, I got a type A quality jade. The pendent of your year is supposed to keep dangers away from you, we got one for me and my little sister. We saw acrobats but ran out of camera battery and had alittle bit left for the Olympic stadium. Today we also had a birthday, it was Joseph's! He got to walk the great wall,and eat birthday cake. They threw him a birthday party at lunch time. He turned 7! This was a very cool day!! Cant wait to see Quinn.

Seeing China!

This morning I woke up early not being able to sleep! 2:30 AM.
We then went down for breakfast at 6:30, wanting to eat. After we did so we wondered the streets of Beijing, very beautiful place. What I found odd was that there pollution was no badder than any other city. Though I did see people with masks on, covering there nose and mouth, to protect them from breathing pollution in.

Then at 9:00 we all gathered in the lobby to go see the great wall! But ended up going to go see Tianamen square, and the Forbidden City. And other sight seeing things, but not the great wall .Which we will be doing tomorrow beause Zhou had to go to CCAA to finish some paper work .CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs). Zhou keep pushing begging people aside, it was scary for me.

Tianamen square is very beautiful, there was a very long line to go see Mao's tomb. We did not wait in line to see his tomb because we where on a very tight schedule. And when we stoped to take a picture of our group in Tianaman Square, a HUGE bunch of Chinese people gathered in front of us taking pictures of our large group, it was like we where FAMOUS, we laughed and smiled.

In the Forbidden city it was just amazing, it went on, and on, and on. The sight of it was just wonderful, and I got asked to have pictures taken with people and me, total complete strangers wanting to have a picture taken with ME (Bethany), it was like I was famous. We went on a Rickshaw ride, this was one of my favorite things I was amazed that someone could pull us with a bike and themselves. We got to see old Beijing on this ride, and then ate lunch at a mans house who prepared us a traditional Chinese meal. We had Date, Chicken, Oranges, Water lilly shoots, rice, dumplings, and alot of other food, all delicious!!! And yes we ate this all with chopsticks. Oh yeah and on the rickshaw ride there was a congested area and our rickshaw guy hit a man. I can not tell you how many times i thought we or someone else was going to get hit by a car. Everything went well and in two days we go to Nanchang!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait!

Hello,

We are really happy, we made it to Beijing safe and sound. We met some people on our way who where in our travel group, all of the people seem really nice.

We are the only ones from Nanchang! After we meet all the people Zhou took us to the MALL which includes the food market. We got some snacks and then went back to the hotel.
Zhou just left to go meet the other families in our group, we have 11 families in all, so we couldn't all get the same flight.

Everything is very well and we cant wait to see you all.

First Post

Hello,
This is our first post. Today we TRY to relax and prepare ourselves for a long wonderful trip.
All of us are keyed to the max. We can't wait to embark on this new wonderful life. Our plane ride is the longest I have, or maybe, will ever be on, 18 hours there. And 24 hours and over back. CANT WAIT TO SEE YOU ALL WHEN WE GET BACK!!!
We will keep posting :-)