Civil Affairs Office, Notary and the Park

The pictures in this post are from yesterday's events. We started out at the Civil Affairs office and then to the notary. Brielle was not very happy. She saw some of her nannies and the orphanage director again so we think she was a little stressed. She has not cried, but she clearly shuts down when she is stressed. You can see it in the pictures. On the way to the notary she did get car sick. John handled the whole thing because he was sitting in front of her and Longji in the van. I was very proud. We did have fun at the park and it was nice to get out of the room yesterday afternoon. We were a bit adventurous going out on our own. It is definitely a less stressful experience the second time around.

Birthday Cake

The hotel surprised me yesterday with a birthday cake and card. They noticed it was my birthday on my passport when we checked in. We thought it was a very nice gesture and a great way to finish off the day. We came back to the room after dinner, gave the kids baths and then went for the cake. It was different, but very tasty. The perfect ending to a very blessed day.

Gotcha dinner

We decided to stay in the hotel for dinner last night. John and I both ordered a hamburger and fries and the kids ate a spaghetti noodle dish. She ate every one of my fries and very little of her noodles. The food was okay, but we were all tired and emotionally worn out. She hasn't really smiled for a picture, but likes to make a silly face for the pictures.

Gotcha Day - Beautiful Family!

Can I just say I have a beautiful family! Well, if you read the last post you know we were in a car accident on our way to meet our children. Not a good way to start this Gotcha moment! It was a minor accident and we were all okay, but we were already behind schedule and the poor children were waiting for us so they decided to bring them to our hotel instead. It was quite a different experience than with Longji's Gotcha moment. Once we returned to the hotel, we set up in the lobby with video cameras and then began the pacing. We saw the van pull up and the children getting out with the nannies and directors. Brielle was in pink so she was easy to spot. And it turned out she is the oldest in our group here in Nanning. The other three girls are much younger. Once inside the lobby, she was pointing in our direction so she recognized us right away. She was very scared, but she did come over to Longji and I. John was filming with the Flip camera. Longji was such a sweet brother. He kept rubbing her back and telling her "it's okay." He, of course, was speaking English and she had no idea what he was saying. We visited and shared her gifts with her. We were allowed to ask some questions so Michael helped us with this. We are very pleased with her health and couldn't have asked for a better report. She will have to see multiple physicians when we return home, but we feel very confident that God has had a hand in this entire journey. As for her personality, she is everything we thought she would be...all girl! In just one day, we have changed out her hair bows multiple times, painted her nails pink and she loves to walk around the hotel room with John's sunglasses on. She is like a little movie star. She is absolutely beautiful. She does not talk much at all, but is very animated and loud when she does. She loves to hit the elevator button and she and Longji take turns putting the key in the room door. She is only about an inch taller than Longji, but stocky. She eats very well, almost too much. Longji did the same thing when we first met him. She seems very comfortable with us and with Longji. I will upload some pictures from our meeting and then add some more later.

Gotcha morning!

We landed in Nanning at about 11:00am and then it was about an hour drive to our hotel. After checking in we gathered Brielle's things and our nanny gifts and we headed downstairs to the lobby. There are four other families here as well from our adoption agency. We are all working with Michael, our guide. We headed to the bank as a group to exchange our American dollars and then back to the hotel. At around 3:30pm we loaded up in a van to go meet all of our daughters...no boys in the group this time. Unfortunately, we were in a car accident so we had a change of plans. You will have to read about what happened on the next post. Meanwhile, the pictures posted here are of the nanny gifts and Brielle's bag. We are calling her Yi Qun for now, but will eventually transition to her new American name.

We made it!

After a very long weekend on four planes and at least 20 hours of flying we finally made it. This is my 5th attempt at posting, but I think I have figured it out. I thought I had worked out the kinks before the trip, but that wasn't the case. It is Tuesday afternoon here in Nanning, China. Because of the data size I am going to do multiple posts to get all of these pictures uploaded. They may be small on the blog, but I think if you click on them you can see a bigger version. This first set of pictures is from our first night in Guangzhou at the hotel airport. It was a beautiful hotel with an amazing breakfast. We didn't check in until about 11:30pm and then we left at 7:45am so it was a very short visit. There was a glass wall between the bathroom and main room...very interesting. Fortunately, we were able to cover the glass with an electronically controlled wall. Our last flight was Monday morning to Nanning and this is where we are currently. Gotcha pics will be uploaded next.

Late night

There are no faces in the countdown picture because we just took it and I was already in my pajamas, faced washed, contacts out...and just not pretty. I am in the middle of washing clothes, picking out my clothes, putting some back, picking new ones, putting those back and so on...Ladies, you know how it goes. The weather right now is a little wet over there, but not too cold. However, the best thing is probably to dress in layers which is what we have to do here in Texas. This does not help the packing situation. We are limited to one piece of luggage per person while flying intra-China. This is a challenge packing.

Tomorrow we have to run about five last minute errands after school and then we decided on a big Texas hamburger before we settle on noodles and rice for twelve days. The weather here is supposed to be messy Friday night and Saturday morning. Seriously, it couldn't wait until we flew out of here?

Longji is in better spirits about the trip which makes me feel better. I think he thinks we are going to be relaxing the entire time in the hotel. Yeah, that's not going to happen. He has a packet of work he will be doing and we will be touring the cities. I am thinking I might put on some weight with the breakfast buffet, but it will be so worth it. I love breakfast and they know how to do it in China. Tomorrow will be my last post before the trip. I need to make it through one more day of school, finish packing and loving my dogs and then China - here comes the Laymon family!