Enjoying The Homelife

We have been home for about 10 days and life is slowly but surely returning to normal and starting to develop into a good daily routine.
Lily seems to be adjusting really well and the sleep issues are getting better. As a matter of fact for 2 straight nights she has slept thru the night and not woke up at 1:00am for a bottle and play time. This comes as much relief for Doug and I. Lily is also reaching milestones in other areas as well, such as crawling and pulling herself up on furniture. Plus,she is starting to eat more variety of foods. In China, she could not even swallow a cheerio and now she wants whatever we are eating. I am starting her out slowly in the food area and feeding her soft mushy items such as applesauce, sweet potatoes and peas and carrots. Grant has already started her on McDonalds french fries and of course she is hooked.
Grant is turning out to be a great big brother. Lily absolutely adores him and watches everything he does with those curious eyes. Grant is good about playing with her and feeding her cheerios, plus letting me know when her diaper needs to be changed.
I am off work till October and plan to enjoy each and everyday of my time at home.

Home At Last

I just wanted to leave a quick note to let everyone know that we are home at last, safe and sound. The journey home was very greuling to say the least.
The plane home from Hong Kong to Chicago was 1 hour behind schedule, the baby cried and screamed 70% of the time and would not sleep at all and Lily vomited all over Doug during the 15 hour flight.
After we landed in Chicago we had to go thru immigration and customs. That was a disaster and Lily had diarrhea while we were in line twice. Then we discovered that we had missed our connection flight from Chicago to St. Louis, luckily though we caught the 8:00pm flight out. We arrived in St. Louis about 8:45pm and had to sit in the plane for about 10 minutes until a gate opened up.
We were finally able to exit off the plane and then try to freshen up Lily a bit before Lily met her new family and friends. There was no hope for Doug and I to freshen up after 29 hours of straight travel we looked and smelled like pooh.
We were greeted among 15 of our friends and family with ballons and cheer. I was so happy to be home that I kissed the ground. Lily did great and just took it all in. Grant was a little hesitant about his sister at first, however after being home for 24 hours they both discovered that they are crazy about each other. I asked Grant if he likes her or wants me to take her back to China and he said " Don't take her back to China, I want to keep her"
We are going to take the weekend to adjust and get our sleep back in order. I hope to venture out next week to show off our new little girl.

Farewell China August 15

Things We Miss Most About Home

1. Grant, Ringo & Sydney (of course)
2. Family & Friends (Thank You for your help and support.)
3. Cold Drinks - Especially Ice Tea (ICE! ICE! ICE!)
4. Long Phone Conversations (This is Renee's)
5. Milk (Been afraid to drink - thought it might be from a yak, cat or rat)
6. American TV (Without Chinese subtitles - take up too much space)
7. Tap Water (Using bottled water to brush your teeth is a hastle)
8. Sports (Unless your a Yankees fan, your out of luck)
9. Driving a Car (Would never attempt it in China)
10. American Music (Not from the 1970's)

Things We Will Miss About China

1. Service (They are so very helpful and polite)
2. The CHI Guides (Phenomenal Job - They are there for you)
3. Breakfast (They really know how to lay out a spread)
4. Coke (I think it has more kick here - maybe because it's warm)
5. Workout Rooms & Pool (A bit of luxury)
6. Laundry (They could get out any stain - it's incredible)
7. The Beds (Not at all what we expected - heavenly)
8. Shopping (This is Renee's)
9. Money Conversion (100USD to 750RMB - I felt like a high roller)
10. The Group (Sharing the experiences)

Our next post will be from home.

Guangzhou August 13th

Hello to all my Fans, can't wait to meet you!
Happy Family, just need my brother!
Last hotel in China
First Plane ride
Grace & Lily, Friends forever

Yeah, yeah, I hear it, can we just go home?
School children so sweet!
Goodbye to our Guide from Chongquing

Greeting from Guangzhou
On August 11 we left Lily's birthplace of Chongqing for Guangzhou to apply for her travel visa so we can bring Lily home as an American Citizen. We are staying at a the Westin Hotel Guangzhou and it is gorgeous - nicer than anywhere I have ever stayed in my life. The hotel is located across the street from a 7-11 store, Pappa Johns Pizza and a McDonalds - we are set. Plus, there is a beatiful park where we can take Lily for walks during the day. The people are very kind here and don't seem to be staring as much. The location is definitely more of business district so there isn't as much tourist shopping as around the White Swan, but it does feel convenient for food and essentials.
Today, August 13, we went to an area called Shamian Island to get the babies their photos and medical exams so we can bring them home. Al the babies did very well and cried very little. Lily was wonderful all day long, especially for as much as we put her through all day.
After the exam we went shopping - big time shopping. I bought Chinese dresses, squeaky shoes, and gifts for my family and friends.
Then we went to the White Swan to take pictures on the famous red couch. The White Swan is usually where families who are adopting stay and the tradition is to have picture taken of the babies sitting on the red couch. After the pandemonium, we had a catonese lunch, served lazy susan style and which was delicious. Then we headed back to the Westin, where Doug, Lily and I decided to go swimming. This was Lily's first time in a pool and she loved it. She is definitely a water baby. Lily has been full of smiles and personality today. I hope this is her true personality coming out and she is happy and content to be with us.

Happy 13th Wedding Anniversary!

'Love is what you've been through with somebody.'

13 years together on the 13th of August

We celebrate in China

Holding our daughter

Forever

(Update from China coming soon.)

August 10th

Chinese Smiles for Everyone Back Home!

Lovely Lily
It is hot, hurry up with the pictures!

In China, we chew bottles?

The locals doing what they do
Lunch?

(Pictures Added to Post below this from zoo)

Well we are officially half way. Everybody in the group is a little homesick and ready to go back to the good ole USA. This is our last night in Chongqing and it is a little bittersweet. I am glad to be moving on thru this adoption so we can get home to our son Grant and the pups, however we will be leaving our daughter's birthplace. We hope to return someday to do a homeland tour as a family so she can visit her birth city.

Yesterday we took a tour to the Ci Qi Kou Ancient Town. It was very interesting and the shopping was good. My main find was a keychain that I could give her on her 16th birthday when she starts driving. I also bought grant some goodies. Lily was in rare form yesterday. In all honesty she was a difficult baby. She is dealing with the pain of teething and the grief of loss.

Although Lily's coming home with us forever to join her family is the best thing possible, all she knows is that we have taken her away from the only home and caretakers she has ever known. Lily was born on October 10, was found on October 19, and lived in an orphanage till January 2007. In the month of January she went to foster care with another baby to live for 7 months. The week before Doug and I arrived she was moved back to the orphanage to live. Then on August 4, she made the 6-hour hot bus ride with 7 other babies to meet Doug and I. So this little Chinese baby has been through quite a lot in her short 10 months of life and it would be totally unrealistic to think that she would meet us and instantly fall in love with us and live happily ever after. Some days she is happiest when I walk her around outside and she can see and hear people she's familiar with. I guess what I am trying to say is that we are going to have some rough days ahead and I am prepared for that simply because this is the baby that was chosen for us. She is our daughter and we love her.

August 8th Trip to the Zoo

Got to love those Chinese rolls!
Please tell me this is not lunch?
Official Chinese Panda

Look at that sweet smile!
We deliver with trucks, they deliver by foot.
KFC a taste of home, kind of!
Newstand

Kentucky Fried Pigeon
Sweet Chongquing girls
Meeting the locals















It was very different than our wonderful St Louis Zoo. We arrived at about 9:00am and it was steaming hot - about 95 degrees and 100% humidity We were all dripping with sweat as soon as we got off the bus. The main attraction of the Chongqing Zoo is the Panda Bears. I have to say their Zoo was kind of depressing. A lot of the animals were dirty and kept in cages’. Their food and water did not look very fresh. The pandas were cute even though they looked dirty so I bought Lily a stuffed one from one of the vendors’.

We arrived back to the hotel around noon, gave Lily a bottle and put her down for a 2 1/2 hour nap She woke up a happy baby so we walked around outside for a while, then had Pizza Hut for dinner. I know you all must think that we are duds for not trying any of the local cuisine. I admit that I am not adventurous in the food area of the trip. We went back to the room and played, had a bottle, bath and bed. It was a good day.



This morning we are going sightseeing to Ci Qi Kou Ancient town. Maybe we will have dinner at one of the nice authentic restaurants here in the hotel. Doug and I are celebrating the halfway mark to coming home.We will be leaving Chongqing Saturday to go to Guangzhou. My next post will be from there.

Here are some notes about Lily...

1. She has a ton of hair; I mean it is like a carpet.
2. She is good about keeping a bow in her hair, but she does not like headbands at all. She gets very fussy when I put them on and will just rip it off.
3. She is teething like crazy and has 2 teeth in on the bottom and 2 more poking in on the top.
4. She is a big Chinese baby, however not as big as an American baby. She can wear some 6 months clothes but mainly wears 9-month clothes.
5. Like the other babies in the group, she wants to feed herself, but struggles with the motor skills and quickly becomes frustrated
6. She has the biggest, sweetest gummy smile I have ever seen.

We are blessed to have her.







Posted by Shannon Laxton

Renee is able to look at your comments on blogger, just not able to post. You all need to give her a hard time about the food. We actually ate fried pigeon and it was yummy! ;)

August 7th Free Day

So we all slept in till about 8:00am, which was very late for us. After getting ready for the day, we went to breakfast at 9:15am. By the end of breakfast, Lily fell asleep so we returned to the room to lay her down and let her sleep as long as she needed. Poor baby girl was just exhausted. I would be too after going through all she has gone through. I decided to walk over to the department store by the hotel with one of the other new parents in our group and buy a stroller for Lily. I purchased a black and white Mickey Mouse stroller for about 199 yuan/rmb (around $27 USD). It is really cute and perfect for our travels. I also ran to the store to get more bottled water, coke and some chips to snack on. Lily slept about 3 hours for her morning nap and then woke up with a smile. We then decided to venture out to the streets of Chongqing by ourselves so Lily could get some fresh air and check out her new stroller.

What can I say about the city of Chongqing, other than interesting There are so many people walking around all the time, just seas of people The stares are still very intense toward us. I decided to let Doug push Lily so I could get some pictures of the city and the local people. I feel it is so important to capture as much information as possible about her birthplace. We saw a street vendor selling live pigeons and chickens’. There are so many stores and outdoor vendors here, it kind of reminds me of Mexico.

The children here are wonderful, very sweet and curious. They love to touch Lily and speak with her. I don't mind at all and the best part is that when the locals interact with her, she always keeps an eye on Doug and I. As if she is saying, " Your not leaving me are you, I need you". I keep reassuring her that she is our daughter forever and the only place she will go is home with us

After our walk we went to Kentucky Fried Chicken or as I called it Kentucky Fried Pigeon. We ordered 2 chicken sandwiches which were different, not bad just odd. I tried to take a picture of the young workers at the restaurant, but they ran away shy of the camera. After dinner we walked around a little more and then went back to the room to sleep It was an uneventful day but a much needed day of relaxing.

China Update for Monday August 6th

It's Official! I am forever a part of my family!
Mommy & Me!
Lily is already blogging?
The shirt says it all!
Right where I should be at last
"Signing" the offical paperwork







It is now Tuesday morning Aug 7 at 6:30 am and I just finished working out in the gym and Doug is down there now and Lily Jane is fast asleep. I am starving and looking forward to hitting the breakfast buffet.

So here is the rundown of Monday Aug 6:

The first night was a rough one for all of us, very little sleep so we worried how Monday was going to shape up. Of course the first thing we did was eat breakfast (the Chinese make a wonderful fried egg). Then we had to go to a meeting at 10am to go over adoption paperwork and sign our name about 100 times.

Our guides Ricky and Christi took some of us to a supermarket and that was an experience. It was just wild chaos at the store. We walked around the electronics department where there were about 20 people sitting around one of the TVs watching a show very loudly and laughing loudly, as if they were in their own private living room. I was armed with a list of things to buy, such as formula, a nose suction tool, a backpack for Doug, and ponytail holders for Lily and me. The stares we got were intense. Some were friendly smiles accompanied with nods, others were like "what the heck do you think you're doing here". Some were older Chinese women who would come up and talk to Lily and some even tried to hold her. I held on tight though and just smiled and said her Chinese name to them. They were all very harmless.

We returned to our room for a snack and a diaper change. We discovered Lily loves those gerber puffs!

We all met in the lobby at 2:00pm for our bus ride to the office where we would make the adoption final. I am very proud to say that we are the proud legal parents of Lily Jane Tong. It was at the office that we got our first big smile out of Lily. Doug was
holding her and then kind of threw her up in the air. She loved it.
As a matter of fact. She wanted more. So of course Doug and I took turns throwing her in the air and she just giggled and cooed. Great we have a little boy who loves to wrestle and a little girl who loves to be tossed in the air. These kids are going to kill us physically.

After the appointment ended, we all returned back to the room exhausted. At 5:00pm we took a nap, thinking that we would wake up at 6:00pm and go grab some dinner. Well we were all so tired that we didn't wake up until 11:00pm, so we skipped dinner, gave Lily a bottle and bath, and went to bed.

We are already seeing changes in Lily. She seems to be coming around and opening up to us more. You can tell in her facial expressions and eyes that she is gaining more and more trust in us.
When we got on the bus to go to the office, Lily became upset and agitated. We wondered if it was bringing back the memories of the 6-hour bus ride she had Monday from the Institution/Orphanage to the hotel. Maybe that test has given her more faith in us. I'm looking forward to the days ahead and seeing more trust built as well as our bond strengthening.

Today is a free day and we are going to venture on our own a little.

Enjoy the pictures.

More on Lily Day

Arrival Chongquing
Wrapping Daddy around her finger!
Cooling off in the tub

In Mommy's Arms Forever!

Well today was Lily day!!! She is wonderful but let me give you a rundown on the day

We had to be up at 4:30am to meet in the lobby at 5:30am to catch the 7:30am flight to Chongqing. Talk about a bunch of tired, groggy parents!
After a 2 1/2 flight we arrived to the Inter Continental to check in, organize our things and catch a nap. Christi, our guide, told us that the babies would be here around 3:00pm so around 4:00pm we get the call that the babies are here.

What can I say, other than that was definitely the most incredible moment. I was so scared that I would not recognize Lily since the last picture I have of her was taken 5 months ago. Doug took one look at this sweet baby on the couch and said "that is our girl” and he was right. Christi called our name and handed me this sweet little girl with a ton of thick black hair. I fell in love immediately!! Lily did not cry or really do much of anything but just stared and looked very sad.

We took her up to our room to be alone and have her get to know us. She was very hot and sweaty and looked miserable. The babies came in a hot bus that had no a/c and drove 3 hours away. So I stripped her down and put her in a nice bath and she loved it. Right away her disposition changed after a soothing bath, a new diaper and
new jammies. I also shampooed that thick raven black hair, you
should see it, it is wild!

Doug and I were getting hungry so I ventured out to the streets by myself and found a quick shop to get some coke and water and went to a pizza hut to get a carry out pizza. I wasn't brave enough to get a salmon pizza or a clam and oyster pizza, so I stuck with a good old pepperoni American pizza. It was good and cheap.

When I came back Doug was playing with Lily and getting to know her. I think she already has him wrapped around her finger. I then played with her while Doug ate and she ended up falling asleep on me. Now she is sleeping like an angel in the crib. I think she will come around although I can tell she is grieving for her foster family.

Posted by Shannon Laxton

Renee is still unable to access blogger.

Lilly Day!

I will add all the details later, isn't she BEAUTIFUL!

Beijing Pictures

Think Renee found her coffee in China? This is in the Forbidden City, East Meets West!
The Roasted Duck
Carving the Duck

Childrens Hope International Headquarters
A few from the top of the Great Wall

Looking up at the Great Wall

Touch Down Beijing!!

When we arrived in Chicago the flight was bumped up from 12:45 pm to 6:00 pm. We had to wait in O'Hare airport for 6 hours and then we finally boarded the plane started to taxi to the runway and then stopped and pulled back into the gate because of mechanical difficulty. We sat there for 2 hours while they fixed the plane. Needless to say we did not arrive in china until 11:30 at night and then we could not sleep at all.
But we are here and that is what is important. We went to forbidden city, boy was it crowded and Doug and I were so tired and jet lagged I am sorry to say that i didn't get to enjoy it as much as i desired to.
For Lunch we went to Duck King restaurant, and yes I tried the duck. It tasted like chewy chicken. The food was yummy and yes i did use the squatty potty and thankfully no accidents!
Then we went to the CHI office and watched a video and when they showed the video of the adoption process with Phil Collins singing "you'll be in my heart" I started to cry and get real emotional. I guess it is so close and starting to feel so real. I am going to be a emotional basket case tomorrow.
Our final stop was The Great Wall and I am very proud to say that I made it slightly more than half way. Farther than anyone in our group. I should have bought a t-shirt.
Now we are in the room and just ordered room service. Tomorrow we have to be ready in the lobby to go to the airport at 5:30 am so the next time you check I will have Lily Jane in my arms!!

• Written by Shannon Laxton

Just a few personal notes..

The Duck King is a famous Restaurant in Beijing that is over 300 years old. They carve the duck table side, head and all! I will throw in a few pictures from our trip of those places. There are no "western" toilets here, only squatty potty's! I remember thinking, thank goodness they even have a potty being 300 years old! ;)

The Forbidden City.. Not one of my favorite tours either, but the history is really amazing. You can read all about it by clicking here and see more of the beautiful details of it. That is one thing in China, everything is just so amazing and full of detail.

Renee is not able to access blogger, but I will do my best to post her updates quickly. Just a reminder, she is 12 hours ahead of us here. I don't have her schedule, so not sure if she is getting Lilly on Sunday or Monday.