A week in Guangzhou

Well we made the 3 hour flight from Hohhot to Guangzhou late on Friday night, and the kids have settled into the White Swan hotel with no trouble at all. The breakfast buffet seems to be the first grand event of each morning... Nora is in there like a dirty shirt and needs to be monitored so that she doesn't explode from eating too much :) The last two days were pretty low key, yesterday Nora had her medical exam and she charmed all of the doctors - she seems to know when to beam her prettiest smile. I also completed the mounds of paperwork with the Guide, so we are ready for our consulate appointment.

Today was a swimming day for Liam, and really just a relaxing day for the rest of us at the hotel and wandering around the island. Darren seems to be doing better with adjusting to a new sibling. He is trying to figure out when to be a baby and when to be a big boy. We had a lot of regression last week which was scary and very sad. He seems to be back to his normal self now . He and Nora are chattering to each other in some form of Anglo/Chinese baby dialect at night time. It is hilarious and goes on and on.

Tomorrow we are going to the Safari which is where all the pandas were moved after the earthquake - it is supposed to be really well done and we are looking forward to it.

Nora's personality is starting to shine through and she is not the shy little princess that was described on her paperwork. She is big, and bold and loves to laugh. She is happy to socialize and runs and jumps everywhere. She is falling a lot and we are trying to keep her safe as she leaps off of beds etc. I think she will fit in just fine with her brothers and given her size, she will be the tallest of the Rodgers gang!

Finally our Family Day!

Well I'm a day late in posting, but here she is!

On Monday afternoon, the 20th of April we welcomed Nora Jane MeiLei Rodgers into the family. Meeting her in person for the first time proved even more rewarding than we could imagine. She is a wonderful, healthy and precious little girl who, after a few initial cries, adapted well to her two new brothers .....adults kind of counted, yet the Kid Energy was quite high initially! Liam and Darren were quite anxious with anticipation and extremely happy to finally meet their little sister.

Nora appeared quite coy about the entire encounter and managed to smile on occasion and voice her opinion a time or two......usually in response to her brothers antics. She soon found sanctuary in Molly's lap where she proceeded to acclimate herself to mom and visa versa.

After all the necessary paperwork was completed, the Rodgers Family (and Auntie Karen) spent some quality time together before dinner time. The entire family headed off to the hotel swimming pool where Liam "the fish" Rodgers was in his element and Darren continued to explore his new relationship with water and the baby pool......all the while Molly and Auntie Karen observed with Nora in tow.

Dinner time offered a new dynamic with three hungry mouths to feed (no, we're not referring to the adults here!!). Liam and Darren continued their assault on the hotel buffet while Nora decided "she could hang w/ the best of them" and set her own pace. Multiple bowls of rice, fruit and whatever came her way never had a chance; once she laid eyes on it, consider it consumed.

Our first night together proved uneventful. Nora settled quickly in her new crib and the rest of us followed soon behind.

......all in all, a day well worth the wait!

Beijing Trip

Well it's taken us forever to update, but we are having a FABULOUS trip so far and spent the first three days touring Beijing. The city is beautiful and clean and we were able to see the Forbidden City, the site of the Olympics and also climb a section of the Great Wall. The food has been great and the kids have been exceptional little travellers.

The Forbidden City was an experience for the kids in particular as the Chinese Government has been promoting domestic tourism since the Olympics and it was full of Chinese tourists who were visiting Beijing. We were asked many times for pictures and to people wanted to pose with Liam in particular over and over again. He hung in there, but it's hard for a five year old to pose with strangers every few minutes so we quickly learned to keep moving! Everyone was super friendly and many wanted to know what we thought of China.


Liam and Aunt Karen enjoy one of many yummy meals!

The Great Wall was something I had always wanted to see, and we climbed a very busy section of it. It would have been nice to see a quieter part of it, and I think we will need to come again to find a less touristy section. It was still very impressive and I wasn't aware of that the mountains that surround Beijing are so close to the city. It is kind of like a Denver, or Calgary with the foothills so close to the edge of Beijing. Darren climbed a good section of it on his own, but it was so steep in sections and his little legs were too short to climb down so he got a ride down!

Log In Date

We finally did get an official Log In Date from the CCAA. It is 10/10/2008 which is a week later than I had hoped, but I think I remember there being a holiday in China at the beginning of October so maybe that is why it was delayed. We are hoping for a letter of approval by Christmas and to travel by the beginning of February. It depends on how quickly our paperwork is approved.

Our other interesting event happened yesterday as I was comparing the Chinese documents to the English translations of Nora's medical and history reports. Turns out that she has two different birthdates listed one is January 26, and the other is January 16. There was an error in translation and she was actually born of the 16. We are glad that we caught this before we went to China and had discrepancies for passports etc. Looks like we can resolve it with a notarized letter stating the error and the actual birthday. (Sorry Owen, looks like she won't share the date after all!)

Liam is beside himself with excitement waiting for his sister. Today I mentioned that I saw a toddler bed on sale and maybe we should have a look. Well he got his shoes on and opened the garage door and was so so so excited. We got there and he was ahead of me going "there it is - there it is" I said it couldn't be because we were in the baby section, well he was right. He found this bed in about 2 minutes in a giant Kmart. He and Ryan carried it up to HIS room and read the directions as a bedtime story tonight. He is finally settling on Nora (not his choice) and we are no longer going through the mounds of suggestions which has included Bindi (as in the jungle girl), Molly (just change yours to Mary Jane, Mom), Kafryn among so many others I can't remember. He decided that Pumpkin was a Halloween name for our dog and that we should change it to Fig Newton, (Mom, what IS a newton?)

Darren has been potty training and has a huge fascination with stickers which has helped the process incredibly. He is absolutely adorable and has been dragging around his helium ghost balloon for over a week now. It has a clothespin end that he attaches to the potty when he goes and to his tall boy chair to eat. He walks around saying 'boo' and "go". He had it attached to a rubber boot today and that sent him into a fit of giggles. He also spent his time while I was making lunch unboxing the Christmas candle lights that I put in the windows and plugging them in the dining room sockets. He was using the tine on the plug end to pry the plastic coverings off...hmmm He is always very busy and very quiet. I find things tucked into places very carefully.

Waiting on LID

Boys just burnin' time waiting for their sister to organize them...

We are still waiting on a Log In Date from China. Typically this comes about 5-7 days after the dossier is sent to China. According to our adoption agency, we do "have" a Log in Date, but don't know it because all the computers at the CCAA in China were down for a week. Hopefully we will hear something soon.

In the meantime here is a map of China. Nora is in Baotou at the moment but we will meet her in Hohhot which is the capital city of Inner Mongolia. It doesn't look to be far away and not far from Beijing by air. From the families that have recently travelled, the kids seem very healthy, well fed and developmentally pretty on track.

Inner Mongolia borders Russia to the North and many provinces to the south. Baotou is in the southern part near the two "bumps" at the bottom of the province.We are now trying to get an update and hopefully send off a care package in the next few weeks.

Getting Started

Well, I am trying to be organized enough to share our upcoming journey to China. I will post our travel plans and any updates that we have here for everyone who wants to follow our trip. So far, we have few details although I know that our dossier has gone to China. We do not know whether or not it has been "logged in" by the Chinese government. Typically we travel around 100 days or so after it has been logged in.

In the meantime, I thought I would share a few pictures of the rest of us along the way. The boys are happy and healthy this fall and Liam is eagerly awaiting his little sister. Darren, I have the feeling may not be as thrilled at the beginning as he really is finally bonding and loving being near his Mom and Dad.

This is a picture of our little Nora Meili. This is our ONLY real picture of her. We have one that is super poor quality and one close up of one side of her head. Her most recent update was at 14 months and she is 20 months now. We all think she is as cute as a button and Liam is spending every moment at any store choosing outfits for his little sister. Right now, he is on a quest for a "rainbow" bow for her hair.

I have been on Youtube, trying to find pictures of Baotou and Inner Mongolia. It looks quite remote even though it is not really that far from Beijing (2 hours flying due west) - It is a poor area of China with high unemployment and has cold winters. The main industries seem to be dairy farming and heavy industry. The landscape is beautiful - dry northern desert with wild horses and sand dunes. She will definitely be a northern girl.

The boys were playing the piano and were so cute! Mostly it's trucks racing around the house so I had to get a picture.