Day 11 - Monday

G did not sleep well last night and has started to wake up in the middle of the night wanting to be held.  It's totally understandable, of course!  She starts out in the crib but usually ends up in bed with me.  

S's hand is looking much better this morning after two doses of his antibiotics and Priesthood blessing.  So thankful for my good husband!  I don't know what I would do without him!

We met the other adoptive family at breakfast today.  They'll be going with us and our guide to meet their little boy this afternoon!  After breakfast we took a walk around the neighborhood and ended up at Dairy Queen!  Ice cream tastes a little different here.  It doesn't have a strong vanilla or sweet flavor.  It mostly tastes like flavored milk with a little sweetness.  Definitely not my favorite.  Our whole family took up the entire restaurant though!  That was pretty funny.  

We had several hours to kill between breakfast and leaving to go get E so after our walk we came back to the hotel and watched a lot of Discovery Channel.  It was way too hot to be outside so there weren't many more options!

We met our guide in the hotel lobby and I realized I forgot all the paperwork and passports and had to run back to room!  Doh!  Luckily the guides plan for crazy Americans and give us all some extra time so we weren't late or anything.  When we pulled up at the building we saw that E was waiting with her nannies outside!  You can see a little bit of her right next to the lady looking at the camera here.  That's the mom from the other adoptive family.  She was asking me if this was our daughter.  The Chinese lady in the red shirt is one of the orphanage workers (not the nanny.)  The other Chinese lady in the red shorts is our second guide, Nancy.  E's nanny isn't in this picture.  You can see M saying hi to E for the first time.  

E is tiny and feisty! She's wearing the dress we sent to her through the care package and it's way too big on her!

Josh picked her up and we walked inside the building where it was only slightly cooler.  What is it with government buildings and no air conditioning?!

S was so excited and wanted to hug her!  E was not as excited about meeting us though. 

I ran back outside really quick to get a picture of the building.  

And the entrance. 

E immediately noticed S's lego toy and HAD to have it.  S was such a sweetie and let her hold it.  Little did we know that she would NOT be willing to give it back.  :(

We tried some snacks to get her to warm up to us.  She wasn't a fan of the puffs but liked the Cheerios OK. 

We had to wait in the entry way for quite a while before someone came and unlocked the office we were supposed to go into.  SO HOT!  We finally made it into the office though.  There were two separate air conditioning units and each family naturally gravitated to one.  Ours promptly blew a fuse and so we got to sit in the heat, yet again.  We were destined to be sweaty and hot in every picture this trip!

E needed a diaper change so the nanny did it one last time.  

We brought her a bottle of water since it was so stinking hot and she immediately went to town on it.  I had no idea if she would still take a bottle or what kind of nipple or if she'd drink water from it but I'm glad I took it because she was obviously thirsty!

 Our guide helped us ask questions of the nanny and orphanage worker and they showed us the things they had brought with her.  The nanny said that she was the nannies' favorite and very liked by all of them (yeah, right!).  They said she wasn't picky at all with her food and would eat anything (yeah, right!)  They said she took a bottle in the morning and at night of formula (yeah, right!)  We asked them if we could visit the orphanage and they said they would let us know tomorrow.  

This little guy was SO good.  Sharing his toys and snacks.  I was seriously amazed at just how good of a big brother he is!  I really thought he would have more problems with it.  What a sweetie!

After we signed a few papers we were ready for our "trying it out period".  Or we thought we were. . . 

We headed out to Carrefour - kind of like Walmart - to get some supplies.  We needed a new stroller (or two!) since our last one had gotten bent and was very wonky.  We ended up using it until Guangzhou though just because it was easier to have all the little ones in a stroller in all the crazy traffic.  

We got some snacks, the formula that the nanny said E liked (yeah, right!), two strollers, and lots of water.  We made it back to the hotel and started to get to know E.  

We thought we would make it an easy night for dinner and something the kids would like so we ventured over to McDonald's.  HUGE mistake.  McDonald's is awful in the states but it's beyond awful in China.  SO much worse!  Gag!  E wasn't a fan either and chucked the chicken nugget I gave her across the room!  She would be willing to try some new things but would not hesitate to spit it out on the ground or in your face if she didn't like it, which was the case for most things we gave her. 

After a dinner of mostly french fries we bathed all the kids.  E is NOT a fan of the bathtub and screamed hysterically the entire time.  CRAZY screamed.  

I tried to give E a bottle but she looked at me like I was a crazy person and just chewed the nipple into pieces.  She did not want to be held either.  She was pretty exhausted from her long day though and eventually went to sleep after I held her for a bit.  Josh had tried to get her to sleep for about 15 minutes before he handed her off to me.  

We also had another load of laundry sent off today.  It was the most expensive place of the whole trip!  We spent about $120 US in Xi'an for about 4-5 days worth of laundry and almost $200 US here for the same amount!  Crazy!

Day 10 - Sunday

Today was a free day.  Our guide was picking up another family from the airport so she didn't have anything planned for us, which was fine.  We were ready for some downtime.  The breakfast buffet was pretty good.  The kids seemed to like Xi'an's better though.  

After breakfast, the baby napped while I got the internet working on my laptop and uploaded some pictures so I could blog.  (I think this might have been the last time I was able to blog on the trip!)

Daddy and the big kids explored the mall and got some lunch - Papa John's pizza!  It was pretty good and we ended up eating it a few times here.  It was a restaurant in the food court.  The weird thing was that Josh tried to order a large (medium size in America) supreme but they said they could only make it in a small size.  Uh, why?  Chinese and their pizzas are oddly inflexible!

They also came back with lots of toys too.  Some balls with a little collapsable hoop - like the balls from a ball pit, legos for boys, some play food that you could pretend to cut in half and velcroed back together and a puzzle for mom. (How Josh thought I would ever have the time to put together a puzzle, I'll never know!  It was a sweet gesture though!)  I guess M didn't get anything now that I think about it. Hmmm, she probably did, I just can't remember what!

I found an infected spot on S's hand today.  I had noticed a little cut on his hand yesterday but I didn't think much of it.  I should have immediately taken him to the bathroom and washed it really good and put a bandaid on it, but I didn't. BAD mommy moment!  This morning the whole bottom part of his hand was swollen and VERY red.  There was also a streak of red leading up his wrist too.  Freaked me out.  We noticed it at breakfast and when we got back to the room I immediately washed it well, put some Neosporin on it and some bandages and then mixed up his antibiotics and gave him a dose.  Thank goodness we brought antibiotics for everyone!  Hopefully he won't get anything later on that will need them!  Josh also gave him a blessing too so I felt a lot better after that.  It ended up looking 10 times better the next day and I made sure to keep it clean and covered until it was healed.  He had no other problems the rest of the trip, thank heavens!

I can't remember what restaurant we braved for dinner but it was something in the food court.  We were pretty excited about the prospects of getting E tomorrow!

Day 9 - Saturday

We were up early and packed and ready to go with two hours to wait!  Definitely ready to blow this joint.

We've made some memories here but we are glad to leave the Jian Guo hotel - not the nicest place, but it definitely could have been worse.  Internet SUCKED here and I really got behind on blogging because of it!  :(

I took a few pictures of our rooms before we left.  I wish I'd thought to do this right when we got into the rooms but I never did remember that and all the hotel room pictures are a mess!

This was "My Room" along with S and G.  There were two beds in each room (about full-size each) that had been pushed together for us.  My room also had the crib for G which she would only nap in.  This was taken from the entry way.  The window looks out onto the pond/courtyard area at the center of the hotel which was very pretty.  

This is the bathroom.  It was directly on the right after entering the room.  

Another shot of the bathroom - what's behind the bathroom door.  

Josh and the big kids had an identical/mirror image room.  

We checked out of the hotel without incident and made our way back to the airport.  

Our guide helped us get our boarding passes and check our bags.  She also led us through the airport and helped us find the security entrance.  We said goodbye to Celine, made it through security without much problem and finally found our gate. 

We just about missed our flight when Josh took C and S on a "hike" right before boarding.  They boarded really early though.  He had all the tickets and passports with him.  We made it ok, but I was a hot mess until we got on the plane!

We few Hainan airlines for our trip to Nanjing.  It was G's first flight and she did great!  She sat on my lap the whole time and never cried or seemed afraid.  We were all hungry and hadn't eaten lunch but we only had junk food on the plane - some chips and cupcake things we found in the airport. The flight was only about 2 hours so I figured we could all make it.  

We made it into around 4 pm.  Nanjing is HOT!!!  It is supposed to be 106 tomorrow!  Yikes!

We made it off the plane and got all our bags from baggage claim and found our guide: Denise.  She is very nice.  

Our hotel in Nanjing was the Holiday Inn.  Holiday Inn's back home aren't what I would consider a super nice hotel but this one was pretty high-end.  It was actually connected to a huge mall which was very convenient for getting groceries and meals.  It also had awesome internet!!!  Yay!  We had two connecting rooms, one with a king sized bed and two cribs and then one with two queen-ish sized beds.  The TV's had way more channels and even had HBO and Discovery in English!  The kids were beyond excited to have an English channel.  We watched lots of Discovery Channel here!  

After getting all our bags in the room and settled a little we braved the mall for dinner.  It wasn't the best experience but we got fed so that was good.  The restaurant obviously hadn't had many parties the size of ours and didn't quite know what to think about us.  They had one waiter that spoke a little bit of English so he got stuck with us.  We kept asking if they had bottled water and he would nod and bring us cups of obviously NOT bottled water.  We asked again and he nodded and brought us a pitcher of obviously NOT bottled water.  We were very thirsty through that meal!  G and S were very TIRED and ready for bed too so it was not a quiet meal!  We asked for some napkins and the waiter brought out a package of Kleenex looking stuff and tried to give us one at a time!  He tried to charge us for each individual "napkin" (think really cheap toilet paper) and Josh just took the package from his hands and gave him the money.  China is crazy about their napkins.  Very few places offer them.  Are the Chinese just really neat eaters or something?  I guess we're just spoiled, wasteful Americans, but we have 5 children here and I'm SURE someone's going to spill something.  We ended up bringing our own to everywhere else!

Anyway, we got fed and all made it back to the hotel room in one piece.  We all slept well that night!

Day 8 - Friday

Today was a free day.  Our guide had some paperwork and errands to run for us so we were left on our own.  She had told us there was a park near the hotel so after breakfast Josh took the kids on a trek to find it while I packed and G napped.  They managed to find it but had to turn around right away because R was desperate for a restroom.  Can't just find a gas station or restaurant to use the restroom here.  NOT an option.  

Celine came by the hotel room and dropped off all our documents.  G's passport, shot record, the notary documents, and the official adoption certificates.  She also helped me pull together all the things we would need to take to the Consulate in Guangzhou.  She was a really great and very sweet guide!

After I finished packing us all up we went to get some dinner.  We ate at the same restaurant we'd been eating at all week except we all went there to eat.  We had Chinese "hamburgers".  They're roasted pork in a pancake for the bun.  They were pretty good and better than the other stuff we'd been eating all week!

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at one of the MANY little convenience stores and got some ice cream.  We just guessed at to what the flavors were since the packaging can be deceiving!  Everyone ended up with something they liked though - whew!

We are definitely ready to leave tomorrow!

Day 7 - Thursday

We went to the Xi'an City Wall.  City walls are a common thing in the larger cities (almost every city we went to had one, I think) but Xi'an has a totally intact one.  The city is much larger than it used to be so there is a city still within the city wall and the city on the outside of the wall.  So the City wall is actually in the middle of the city now.  I didn't really know what to expect but it was pretty amazing!  

Here is a view of it from before we got there.  

After waiting for quite a while in the tourist traffic to get out at the City Wall we finally decided to just get out and walk a little bit.  I was a little freaked out about letting the kids walk in the crazy-driver streets but they were able to walk along the curb at the City Wall and our van.  We did have two strollers though.  Celine bought our tickets - nothing's free in China, not even the napkins!  We walked through one of the main gates - CRAZY HUGE! - and then saw the steps we'd have to walk up.  With two strollers.  Ugh!

Once we got up (huffing and puffing) the view was pretty awesome.  This was the view straight in front of us as we walked up the steps.  

Then, turning to the right, this was the view.  This is a watchtower or the place where the soldiers would stay or have their headquarters. 

Then, turning farther to right, across the courtyard is another tower - a much bigger one that now houses a museum of sorts.  You can see one of the entrances below.  The one we entered through is directly opposite it.  

Here's a better view of the courtyard.  This was actually used as a trap back in the city wall days.  If the enemies broke through the gates (where the bus in going through) then they would be trapped here in this courtyard and all the archers would be able to attack them before they made it up the stairs.  (The stairs are right below where I am standing taking this picture and run parallel along the wall.)

The architecture is amazing.  Everything is so ornate and beautiful.  Most of these buildings are original and have only been repainted or minimally repaired.  There are other post buildings every 300 ft or so on the wall.

We had a great view of the city down below.  There was a group of men playing some traditional Chinese music right here (aka cats dying).  

There was a huge shopping mall just on the other side of the wall.  That's Sandra Bullock on one of the billboards.  One thing I found very strange and is that there are very few logos for businesses and stores.  Everything is just a Chinese Character.  Even 7-11's.  We could tell they were 7-11's by the colored bands but it was still just Chinese characters.  Walmart did have their name in English and their little star logo though.  

This is the opposite side of the wall across from the mall.  There is a moat (the river) that is hard to see in this photo and a park that is currently undergoing renovations.  

Here's what the boys did the entire time up on the wall - run!  I think S ran the entire way after we let him out of the stroller.  

Here's what G did most of the time - sleep!

I sure love this kid. 

Every new year they put up a display of the zodiac animal for that year up here.  This year is the snake.  

It's a big ol' snake!

Here's a better view of the moat.  We were heading back to the entrance and to the big building/museum.  

This picture was taken from the big huge building/museum and now you can see the entrance and the steps we climbed while carrying up the two strollers with two babies in them.  HEAVY!

This child never runs out of energy.  He runs to his bed every night!

After visiting the museum (not very interesting) we then climbed back down the steps and found our van.  I got a few city shots in the van on the way back to the hotel.

Scooters with tons of people are everywhere.  So are bicycles.  EVERY.WHERE.

I don't know how well you can see the traffic in this picture but it's a good representation of how the Chinese consider lane markings to just be a guideline.  No one really uses the lanes.  If there's an opening (like the shoulder or any space at all between two vehicles) it's another lane! 

The drivers don't wait for an opening to merge into a new road either.  There's hardly a pause - they just go!  It was terrifying all the time.  I just tried not to look out the window too much!

After the City Wall, Celine took us to a jade factory.  We wanted to get a souvenir for G here and Sha'anxi province is known for its jade.  They had some seriously amazing pieces there but they didn't allow photos.  We ended up getting a pendant for G with a dragon (her zodiac animal - same as mine!) on it. It is a jadeite pendant, which is supposed to be the very best kind of jade and something that Sha'anxi is known for.  That's what they told us gullible Americans anyway!

After that we were pretty tired and headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit.  I can't remember now what we did for lunch but I think we either just snacked or had some cup of noodles we'd gotten at Walmart the day before. 

Later in the afternoon we took a walk around the hotel and found the table tennis room.  We had it all to ourselves for about 20 minutes and then some other guests showed up, smoking no less, and we didn't stay much longer after that.  But mostly because the kids were being so crabby and whiny!

I think Josh is the only one who actually knows how to play ping pong.  I don't think I've ever even tried it before this day.  Josh tried teaching all the kids but they weren't being very cooperative.  

S wanted to play so bad.  Josh helped him a little but he's a little too short and didn't really want any help anyway.  

 He ended up picking up S and playing that way.  S was not a fan.  

G had fun chasing ping pong balls all over the room.  The floor was way dirty though and her little hands and the top of her feet were black after I picked her up!

C is loving being a big brother to this sweet little sister.  She loves him right back too.  Very cute!

Josh and M went to get us some dinner while I stayed back at the hotel with the other kids.  They ended up with some sweet and sour pork, pumpkin congee for G and some cake.  Apparently there is a bakery on the way to the restaurant.  :)

The kids have been playing on minecraft quite a bit and that's all they talk about.  I have no idea what they're talking about but they're all playing together so that's good I guess!

G starting to cry more - not sure if she is just figuring out that she's stuck with us or just overtired?  She definitely wants me more than anyone else though and has started refusing the kids now too.  She also refuses bottles and seems genuinely confused when I stick one in her mouth.  So glad we wasted that money on expensive Chinese baby formula!  She won't drink milk at breakfast either but I think that's because it's cold.  She hates anything cold.  She will drink water and is staying very hydrated.  She's been sleeping well up until tonight.  She's also been sleeping in the bed with me and that seems to comfort her.