One More Day

One day till we go home! One day till we go home!
One day till we go home! I'm so excited! *this is my
victorious going home song* *picture me singing and
dancing to it if you want a good laugh* Okay, so I am
like, so totally ready to be on that plane home.
Don't think I'm not enjoying myself, though. It's
been good, but I want to go. The only thing I'm going
to hate is leaving everyone I've met here. Yesterday,
I think I've had the most fun night ever. What did we
do? We took an evening river cruise on, what else
but, the river. If you haven't heard of or seen the
river of Guangzhou at night, it's basically
Chinese-Vegas. Almost, like, every building on
Shamien Island has multicolored lights all over the
building at night. Some are like TV screens ad play
movies, and some are like rope lights. So, we took
the cruise and had a disgusting buffet dinner, which I
completely don't reccomend, but the lights made it
totally worth it. It was also the day of the Moon
Festival, so they served moon cakes. Which, like the
buffet, they were not at their best. Despite what
people said, Collin got me to try a piece of one
anyway. It was disgusting. I can't describe it, it
was like a jellied peanut flavor, yet it was fluffy
like a cake. So, yeah. That was my cruise. So
beautiful! Today, we have the red couch photo, and
then we attend our last group dinner. Speaking of
groups, yesterday, we toured a park with the other
groups and guides from great wall which has made me SO
thankful that we have Veronica (cause I can't
understand 2/3 of what the others say IN ENGLISH!),
and I love our small group. The others are to loud.
To get back on track, tomorrow we wake up, and we take
the evening train into Hong Kong. We sleep over in
Hong Kong, and then we fly to America that morning. I
believe my plane gets in at seven-thirty. PM. I
can't wait to get home and see my friends again! But,
this IS the experience of a lifetime, and I'm totally
happy to be a part of it. A quick update: I haven't
wrote anything in my journal. It's been all blog, all
the way! When I get home, I'll write what stores and
restaurants are good, what aren't. What we should've
brought. Advice. Blah-yada-blah-yada. Hopefully
I'll get an update in tomorrow morning, but if not
it'll nost likely be at home. Home is where the heart
lies. Never forget that. If I ever wished I was away
from home, forget it. I actually miss my brother and
sister! Anyway, I've gotta go, cause it's almost time
for the red couch photo.

K*_A*_Y*_L*_A

More on China

Two days ago, we went to the "country side" of China.
It was rural, yet interesting. But, I totally could
NOT live there! There's mosquitos, and loose chickens
running around, and lots of dirt, and it smells like
something died, but kept on walking around! Can you
believe they SLEEP on wood? Oh, by the way, I found
out today that the Chinese PREFER to sleep on "hard
stuff" instead of "soft 'n fluffy". Weird. Today, we
toured the Chen Family Temple, because we are now in
Guangzhou. We are staying at the White Swan, and we
got our adoption *Barbie*. The flight from Nanchang
to Gouangzhou was quick, and my little princess did
VERY well. I don't know if I mentioned this, but...I
wanna go home! Now, let me say, Guangzhou is better,
and it's more fun. Yesterday evening, we went to
Lucy's, which I applaud on their food (I got a grilled
cheese sandwhich), but...not-so-satisfied on the
service. I was just so happy to eat an American meal!
I don't think I'll be having Americanized Chinese
food for a LONG TIME. We've also done more shopping,
which I give an A+, ***** (five star) rating, and a
round of applause to. Today, we went to this big
place that had Jade, pearl, porcelain, fans, wood
carving, and other stuff. I got a lot of cool stuff,
which will go great with my porcelain boxes and stuff
that I got for my BFFs! While shopping, Dad said,
"Whatever you want," and I said, "That's a dangerous
thing to say to me in a store this big." It was
dangerous...for him! In a few moments, Dad and I are
going to go get some BarBQue in the hotel, and maybe
do some shopping in the hotel, and I may (if I can
talk him into it) go swimming later. Tomorrow, we are
going to the clinic, to check her "out". Right now,
I've got to go, because, she just woke up and I'm
hungry for my lunch. Which I haven't eaten, and it's
4 PM.

Fried Eggs and Burgers

I want everyone to know that I have officially decided
that putting a fried egg on top of your hamburger must
be a Chinese thing. What am I talking about? Well,
we each have our adoption stories, and one day we
decided to go out to dinner with a lady named
Michelle, and two people named Donna and Jeff (who
have a daughter from our orphanage). Okay, so we're
there, we order what we want...Donna goes up to her
hotel room to change her daughter, Mia. While up
there, they bring out the food. My burger, mom's,
and Michelle's: all fine. Donna's: there was a FRIED
EGG between the pattie and the bun!!! We quickly
assumed that they had gotten her steamed-egg order and
her burger order mixed up. (Though, the steamed-egg
still came out okay.) So, she takes the egg off,
smashing the yoke all over her bun. Then she decides
to only eat the pattie, and underneath it, what else
do we find but bacon? BACON!!! (This pretty much
took the place of Michelle's vomit-sneaker story.)
So, this happended Monday, and I was cracking up all of
Tuesday, and teasing her for it. Today (Wednesday),
we go to a McDonald's, and guess what's on the
menu...a regular cheeseburger with everything on it
like ketchup and pickles, and...egg. A fried egg. We
have now decided that it must be a custom, and OUR
"regular" burgers must be the outcast food. And,
you know how "in-the-States", at McDonald's, there's
chocolate or strawberry syrup curling around the ice
cream? In China, there's green (sour apple), purple
(plum), and orange (mango?) draping the white stuff.
And they serve corn! What about Wal*Mart? Well, it
was pretty cool. It was two stories tall, and had
lots of stuff. There were three or four KFCs
(Kentucky Fried Chickens) in there, and there were
really cool escalators, which didn't have stairs. It
was like a moving ramp, so you could get your cart up
to each level. It was also magnetic, so the cart wouldn't roll off.
Today, we were supposed to tour a park
by some lake, but because of a typhoon (hurricane)
that hit China recently, it's very windy and cold, so
we toured this 6-story-tall "pagoda/pavillion" that
was mostly indoors. The baby finally cried two nights
ago, which had to happen some time. It was around 9
PM, and my mom had went downstairs to get a Nanchang
calling card to call home, and I was asleep, and
Dad...he was watching Kenzie. What I remember is
hearing a crying scream, and her pretty much gasping
for air in between. It was really loud, and I
remember saying, "What's that? Make her stop! Shut her up!". Half
a minute later, I got up, and handed her the photo
album, which we learned that that and a Carebear
toothbrush seem to be her comfort. She only cried for
two or three minutes, and it was a hurt cry, because
she had eaten a lot (it was fried egg night!), and her
stomach hurt. But the orphanage people were right,
she only cries when she's hungry. And since she eats
a lot, that equals to not much crying. Today, I think
she had a slice of water melon, a plate of eggs, 2
8oz. bottles, 3oz. of juice, 2 chicken nuggets, 1/3
cup of corn, and some water. And it's only 1:38 pm
over here! She woke up at five-thirty, and she's
already taken 2 naps, so she may be up late. Turns
out she DOES like baths. A lot! It's probably one of
her faovrite things, besides eating and going outside,
that is. We also bought a stroller, which she
l-o-v-e-s! We developed the film from the orphanage,
and I'm having a traditional Chinese outfit made for
me, and the baby's getting one made with shoes and a
hat at Tiffany's. Tiffany's...I had a "bad
experience" there. So, I had her in the Ergo (baby
sling), and my mom, Michelle, her daughter, Erin (13
1/2 mos.), and me were all at Tiffany's small store.
She (Kenzie) was in front of me, and I felt something.
So I ask outloud, "why are my pants wet?" And my mom
tells me she "went" on me." So I start freaking out,
rushing my mom, and almost running back to the hotel
to change. At dinner, I found out that my mom made a
mistake, and you sweat a lot in those, and I freaked
out for nothing. It was pretty funny. I also tried
bamboo. Well, at the time I thought it wass bamboo.
John (Collin and Lily's dad) had a whole bag of what
he said was bamboo, so I tried it. It wasn't
brilliant, but it wasn't revolting. I told eveyrone I
had bamboo. But the next day at breakfast, I found out
it was actually sugar cane. So, that's been my past
two days, and right now, I've got to go play with
Kenzie YangYang, and finish up my Skittles. Till
then!

2nd Day with Kenzie

Okay, so it's our 2nd day with YangYang. Today, we
went to the Civil Affairs office, the notary place,
and this other building where we got a picture of our
baby. That covered our day from 8:15-12:00pm, not
inculding breakfast. Our hotel has the most amazing
breakfast buffet with everything from French fries, to
Chinese dumplings, to eggs, to spaghetti. Even
watermelon! Just like the paper about Kenzie from the
orphanage, watermelon is clearly one of her top
favorite foods. She's been a very good baby, she
still really hasn't cried, except for an occasional
yelp ever so often. Can you believe she slep 12 hours
straight last night?! Compared to some other kids who
were still screaming, that's really good. In our
group, there are two sets of twins (girls, of course),
and eight girls who aren't twins. I would probably
say that Kenzie is one of the smallest, and one of the
most-adapted, and well-behaved babies. She is totally
content with her surroundings. I mean, she'll
seriously go to anyone, and take pretty much anything.
If she dislikes it, she gives a simple shake of her
head. She also enjoys the great outdoors and looking
out the window, seeing as she is a very curious baby.
Boy is she in for the plane ride home! 13 hours of
nonstop action from our window seat! Anyway, she also
enjoys TV, which fits in good with our family. No
matter what you put it on, from music to news (even
Chinese!), her eyes just bug-out, and all her
surroundings seem to fade from her. Right now, she is
napping. Again. Well, she WAS napping, but then our
guide (the lovely Veronica!) called and said it was
time for our meeting with the orphanage director. (Not to sound
sarcastic there, she really is wonderful!) This
was a session of time in which we could ask him or
other staff members questions, and, naturally, recieve
answers. We found out that she enjoys baths, and her
favorite nanny is Wangpei. She doesn't have any
allergies or previous injuries, although she did have
a cold and fever while staying at the orphanage. The
Lu part in her name is short for the place that she
was found, and Yang means "sunshine." Who gave her
her name? A woman name Hu Xiao Ying. She's the vice
director in charge of the abandoned baby department.
She is just as well the woman who handed over our
precious little YangYang for the first time. They
also showed her the photo album while in the
orphanage, which may be another reason why she's so
comfortable with us. She must've been quite attatched
to it, because we have another one just like it that
we brought with the same photos, and ever since my
mother got it out, she is very clingy to that. She
also totally doesn't mind hairbows. She loves to feel
and look at them. Like I said, she is a very curious
baby. She loves to look in mirrors, and feel things.
If she hears a noise, she'll always pop her head up.
Today was excellent weather. A little breeze, a
little sun. While on this trip, I also met some new
friends. Their names are Collin (age 11), and Lily
(age 5). Lilly is also adopted from China, and is from
Nanchang. So, her parents have already experienced
not only the adoption thing, but coming here as well. This
trip is way more than I thought it would be. It's
challenging (the Great Wall), it's interactive
(meeting new people), it's fun (playing around with
Kenzie). It's all I expected and more. Our guide is
really great, which I know I've already said, but
she's a big help. Great Wall agency may not be the
best beforehand, but they're very good on the in-China
travel. Our hotel room is this amazing suite, and it's
totally sweet! We have two rooms, and two bathrooms.
Each room has a huge windows, with a two foot pieces of wood
that jut out in front, so you can sit and look at the view, or
even sit YangYang, who is way more impressed with the
view. If I look out the window now, I see a much
prettier city than Beijing. Not much pollution, and
it seems so much bigger, because I can see a lot more.
On of the most challenging things over here is trying
to cross the street. It doesn't matter if the light
says stop, the drivers go anyway. I still haven't
really done any shopping, but tomorrow is Wal-Mart
time, and there's tons of time to shop. So if you
know I'm getting a souvenir for you, don't freak, 'cuz
the right one will come along. Till then...what's
Chinese for "bye"? Oh, I don't know. Um...write back
soon? Yeah. I'll post again either later tonight or
tomorrow. 'Bye!

Kenzie!!!!!!!!!

OK, so after much of a long anticipated wait, today
finaly came along at turtle-speed. The only long part
was waiting for the time where we could take the bus
to the airport, and then waiting to board the plane.
Everything else went SO quickly! The plane did NOT
seem like 2 1/2 hours, and the ride to the hotel did
NOT seem like an hour. By the time we got to the
hotel, time breezed by, and in no time, we were at the
Civil Affairs office. Witihin an instant, it seemed
we were holding our little YangYang in our arms!
Right now it is like 7:15 pm or so in Nanchang, and
she is asleep. At least I think. Occasionaly, she'll
have a cough, but she's a tired little princess. As
soon as we got her, she was like the perfect
angel-child. She didn't even cry! She has adapted
so, so well. We brought lots of toys, and she was
totally okay with me surrounding her by them, and she
has already laughed, "talked", and made sounds. She's
been getting along VERY well with everyone, and we've
got a lot of her on video and taken tons of pictures.
Tomorrow, we're going to finalize it, and then the
next day we're going to...Chinese-Wal-Mart! The Great
Wall? That was challenging! There's five towers to
make it to "the top," aka, every "stopping point where
you can say you've reached the top." I only went three, but I got
my "I climbed the wall!" card, and that's really all I
care about. Tian 'A Men (is that how you spell it?)
Square was OK, and the Forbidden City was pretty neat.
But, let me tell you, my feet HURT! It was so much
walking, I really don't see how our guide does it that
often. Our guide is Veronica, and we've heard great
things about her, so we were thrilled ot have her.
And she is AMAZING. She is one of the nicest people
you will ever meet. At first when I came to China, it
was like it was a dream, and I felt like at any time
I'd wake up in m bed at home. But when I saw Kenzie
and held her...it was just so real. By now, she's
definitely asleep, and I'm ready to eat my pizza for
dinner. So, to all those at home, I send my love,
blah, blah, blah, and stuff, and I'll see you all
soon! Later!

Arrival in China

Hey everybody, after a very long, and I mean LONG
flight to Beijing, it is my second day here. Right
now in Beiijing it is 6 am, which I would normally say
is really early for me to get up, but I was so tired
that I fell asleep around 5:30 last night. (PM.)
Anyway, around seven we're going to go down to
breakfast, and then at 8:30 we will be leaving to tour
everything. We will get back at 6:30 pm, so that's a
lot of walking around. I mean, ten hours!!! After
that we'll come back to the hotel, maybe have dinner
(we, out of exhaustion, skipped it last night!), and
then we'll sleep. Tomorrow, we'll pack up, and catch
a flight for Nanchang. And so we'll be off!!!

3 days!!!!

Hey, everybody! I am so totally excited, it doesn't even seem real! I mean, to think that in 3 days, we will be on our way to the journey of a lifetime. Wow. That sounds really nice. And to think that when we return back to America, or even while we're in China, our lives will automatically change for the better. It's like all this waiting has finally paid off...anyway, the other day, we recieved our actual "itinerary". We will get there (in Beijing) at 1:45 PM, Friday, China-time. (That's what I'll call it.) We will go to the hotel, maybe do some shopping, and then get some much-needed sleep. The next day, which is Saturday, we will be "touring," the new would-be word for walking for a VERY long time, the Forbiden City, The Great Wall of China, and Tian An Men Square. I think this will be fascinating/interesting, but I am still not looking forward to climbing up to the TOP of the Great Wall, which is where my mom has designated her, my dad, and me to have to climb up. (OK, they call it walking, but have you seen those stairs???) So, after that, I'm sure we'll be even more famished and will probably do dinner, and then go to our hotel. We'll sleep, and the next morning we'll "rise 'n shine" oh-so-early to fly over to Kenzie's province. Her province is Nanchang, and is a few hours' flight from Beijing. About the smae time we leave the airport to fly to Nanchang, she'll probably leave on a bus or car in JI'an to travel up to where we'll be meeting her in that province. I believe we'll spend four or so days there, before heading to Guangzhou. What is there to do in Nanchang? Nothing. At least that's what I've been told. They have a zoo, but once again, I've been told it's not exactly the "tourist spot," meaning it's not very good. We're planning to mostly shop around. In Guangzhou, we'll be doing all of the paperwork, doctor visit, visa, all that stuff...We'll also be shopping, but not so much touring there, as well. And, then, I guess we'll just stay there until the day we have to go out to Hong Kong, where we will depart China from the day afterwards. Update: we finally got the paper which lists all of the fees and stuff. You know this already, but we got our itinerary. We got new luggage stuff, and a few of the medications or things needed, like sunblock. My Dad has also confirmed about taking his computer, so I will most likely get to update stuff, and will probably have seperate posts for my journal entries in China. Journal entries? I'm taking a journal to China. I'll probably write during the flight there and back a lot, as well as when I'm bored, and probably on the car ride to pick her up, or something. I'm still debating on whether I want to put those entries onto my blog, but I'm pretty sure I will. I might also have new pictures. When we get back, I think my dad will be making a family website, and probably with better capacity than the one I have now. But don't get worried! (How someone could get worried over that, I don't know? But if you have a weak heart, I hope you didn't have a heart attack.) Whatever. So, I'll still post, but it won't be as big news. Just updated photos from home, accomplishments, and once-again life with a baby. But, to get to the bottom line, I am just SO excited about traveling, and getting the baby. We even made "got'cha day!" t-shirts! If you're adopting a baby, or if you already have, it's like "I'm adopting, uh-huh." But it doesn't seem...what's the word I'm looking for? Real. That's it. Real. But, when you get that picture and information, it's like...WOW. You can't believe it. It's like you have everything ready to go, but you wanna keep checking, and you wanna think you have a lot, because you wanna do ANYTHING to help time go faster. The key-word there is patience. But they key-PHRASE is probably..."go shopping, see friends, and watch TV to take your mind off of how LONG it will be before you have that baby in your arms." Oh, did I tell you that I have been deligated to film our first encounter, no wait, she's not an alien, meeting with Kenzie. I don't even know HOW to film it! I guess I'll learn. (Also, I will probably update tomorrow, and the day after, that, and I may stay up all-night, and update around 3 in the morning on Thursday. We'll see.)

TAs and travel dates!

Hey, everyone! Three weeks seem to have flown by and we recieved our TA (travel approval) on Monday, and our consolate appointment on Wednesday. Our appointment has been set for the 27th of September, so we have already purchased our tickets, and will be leaving the airport near our home at 6:30 AM, September 13th. We will arrive for a stop in Newark around ten-something, and then it is over the North Pole to Beijing. What a long flight that will be! We will tour when we arrive in China on the 14th (since they are a day ahead of us), and then we will travel to Nanchang on either the 15th or the 16th, and we will recieve the baby on the 16th. Then, we will be busy shopping in Guangzhou and doing paperwork, and her doctor visit. We have decided against touring the orphanage, but we will be taking a train to Hong Kong, since our flight leaves from there. However, we won't be going to Hong Kong Disney World, like originally planned, but we will probably go to the one in Orlando when we come back. We will arrive back home in America around 7:45 on the 28th. Wow, we are going to be so busy...anyway, we're going carry-on-only, and it seems like everyday we get more and more added to our luggage, which I thought was packed, but we have lots still to add. My dad is still debating on whether or not to take his laptop with us, so I may or may not get to update this site, but I will be keeping a journal, and will take entries from that and posting at some time or another. That's all for now, but since it's getting close, I'll probably be updating tons. 'Bye!