Simply pictures

this kid loves her peanut butter.

nap time

sitting outside

Sorry and thanks

i apologize for neglecting the blog recently. hasn't really been much to talk about. Natalie seems to be doing fine and we have started to get her out and about to see some people that have made requests. we will continue to have her out occasionally, but can't do it too often as she shows some signs of stress after having a big day.

several friends and family have been very kind in providing food for us so that we don't have to cook or clean as many dirty dishes. we greatly appreciate all of the help you have provided. if anyone wants to come clean the house, feel free (jk).

don't have any pictures to post really. we haven't taken many as we are recharging all the batteries we used on our trip. will post some ASAP.

News

we received a very interesting phone call last week. our adoption agency, CCAI, informed us that they had an email from Natalie's foster family in Shanghai. i'm sorry, her what? apparently, when Natalie was in Shanghai for a bit getting her foot taken care of, she stayed with a very wonderful family. we had no idea that she had been there for 4 months and especially didn't know she lived with a family. let me say this IS NOT a negative thing. from the limited conversation we have had with Julia and Marvin, it sounds like she was cared for VERY WELL and loved the whole way. the only issue we had was not knowing about this. we would have loved to visit them while we were there.

anyway, i am not gong to talk a lot about her time with Julia and Marvin as that is part of her story that she can decide to tell people when she gets older. let the kid have some privacy, people. i will say that we are excited to hear from them and wish very much to keep in touch. they have already told us many things about how Natalie developed some of her wonderful personality. we are so grateful for the love and care they gave our daughter and we want them to see her flourish as she grows into a beautiful young lady.

one last piece of news. while she was with them in Shanghai, Natalie had surgery on her foot. again, not something we were told about, but oh well. we had some suspicions since there did appear to be a small scar on her achilles area. this comes as a big relief to us though. we were so worried about her having to go through surgery in this new and strange place we call home. fyi, we will still take her to get evaluated by the wonderful people at Shriners and see how they want to proceed. again, we cannot thank Julia and Marvin enough for the love, kindness, and blessings they showered on our girl.

in closing, enjoy the videos of bubbles by the pool and playing with Aunt Joyce's dog, Lily.

Like a boss

that would be Natalie taking her breathing treatment like a champ. she really has done well with that since we had to bring the nebulizer home. it has also made a big difference in her cough.

let me start from the beginning. so, i got sick and then Natalie and Amy proceeded to get it as well. you can blame it on me if you want, but the Dr. says this has been going around. so, we probably all got it on the plane. anyway, she came down with this virus and an ear infection. all this caused a fever, a nasty cough, and a less than sunny attitude. one of the main issues was lack of sleep. she kept waking herself up with the cough and then made sure we got up top take care of her.

luckily, it seems like we have made it through the woods. she slept all night last night and her mood is much improved. it could be that she is feeling better or that she doesn't have to make daily trips to the Dr. or wal-mart.

just thought i would let everyone know that we are doing better and hope to start seeing everyone soon. it starts tonight with a dinner date with the Hensleys. tomorrow it is Amy's family for lunch and my family for dinner. she has been out and about some during the day, so we think she can handle it.

Rough going

thought you all might like to see some more photos. these were taken Sunday at Granny and Papa's. Natalie really enjoys the pool which is awesome since it is great for bonding. now we just have to get Amy in there too.
so, Sunday was a good day, but it has been rough ever since. Natalie did come down with the funk that I have and has not been feeling well at all. it has really messed up the sleep schedule for everyone as well. i am starting to feel better though and she is about 12 hours behind me symptom wise, so hopefully she will be out of the woods soon.
parenting hasn't been easy so far. Amy does have to share the brunt of the load though as Natalie prefers her when she needs to be taken care of and Amy has taken to the mommy role very well. Natalie likes me in public and when she wants to play (imagine that). considering all the drastic changes in this girl's life, the screwy schedule due to traveling, and the sickness, i think we are all managing OK.
hopefully she will be feeling better soon and we can start to show her off.

The journey home

i guess i should fill you in on the goings on since we left China. the first flight from Guangzhou to LA was a breeze. i really mean that. it was an overnight flight for us and Natalie slept almost the entire time. we didn't purchase a seat for her, she was just going to be in our laps. however, there were a few empty seats on the plane and the very nice young man sitting next to us agreed to move to another seat (like he really wanted to sit with a baby anyway). so, that left us with an empty seat between us for Natalie to sleep in. awesome.

the next flight from LA to Atlanta went OK. Natalie really wanted to be active at LAX and crawl around, but after we let her do that for a minute and saw the filth she had on her hands an socks, we just couldn't do it anymore. so, she was quite active on the flight. pretty well behaved, but doing the jungle gym routine again.

the shortest flight of the trip, ATL to Louisville was by far the worst. of course, it took forever to get off the ground in ATL. it was hot in the plane and Natalie was pretty upset. we were about halfway to Louisville when the pilot got on and told us that we had to turn around. some kind of malfunction that prohibited us from lading in Louisville because of storms in the area. thing is, there were no storms at that time. some BS excuse for some other kind of issue i think. we were not happy. they ended up cancelling the flight. i was livid and was certain i was going to be very inappropriate in my conversations with the Delta folks. however, when we got off the plane we were told that they had empty seats on a flight leaving just a few minutes later. Natalie didn't take well to the change in her itinerary though and cried the last 20 minutes of the flight. i am talking screams. not fun.

anyway, we made it to Louisville. there were many family members there to greet us. it was very nice. special thanks to Carla, her mom, and her aunt for coming all the way down from Maryland just for the occasion. also, i apologize to Dave and Robin, that Delta screwed us over and we had to miss you. thanks for coming out.

one final note. Natalie did great last night. she went to sleep about 4pm (remember, this is 4 am her time) and slept until about 6 am. so, she was really tired, and it looks like she might have really taken a big step in helping us with the transition. if she continues to do well sleep wise, then we may be able to get her out and meeting folks a bit sooner than we had thought.

fyi, i did not sleep well and have a very nice chest cold, if anyone cares.

Natalie comes home

we made it. it was not uneventful, but it was accomplished. Natalie is doing pretty well and probably was a better trooper than Daddy for parts of the flight.

i will talk a little bit more aobut our adventures later, but now is time for shower (i absolutely need it) and sleep.

so happy to be back in the States and back in Glendale.

Last day

Natalie says, "we are going where?"

we are leaving tonight. flight takes off around 9 on Friday night here.  we will be back in KY around 10 on Saturday morning.  for those of you who would like to see us at the airport, you can contact David or mom for details about our flights (and delays).  hopefully we will all be able to sleep on the planes and will be in a good mood to greet you.  

things have been going pretty well.  Natalie has really gotten closer to me in the past few days.  that is almost a bad thing since my arms are very tired.  she still likes her mommy when it is bedtime though.

while we will miss some things about our stay here, we are certainly ready to come home.  we want everybody to see her ASAP and we will make every effort for that to happen.  please remember though that we are trying to do a 12-hour shift for a child with a very regular sleeping schedule.  it will be quite the challenge.  

fyi, everyone here keeps talking about what a pretty girl she is.  we are very proud of our "sexy lady" (what we have been told one of the Chinese characters used to spell Natalie means).  awesome. 

Checking in

everything is OK here.  apparently there are some issues with the internet in Glendale, so i don't have access to David's PC and therefore can't get on blogger.  sending this via email.

we are very ready to head home tomorrow.  more about that and other things later.

3 days and counting.

that is really the only big news of the day. just three days left until we board the plane to come home.

nothing much went on today. we went to the zoo this morning. just like any other zoo really except for the giant panda. that was pretty cool to see. he was treated like royalty compared to the other animals.

we had a great video call just a little while ago with both grandmothers. skype is a wonderful thing. hope they enjoyed talking with Natalie a bit. they also got to see a bit of her fussy side as the call ran into bath time. i pity the fool who interferes with Natalie's bath time. btw, we just got done with the fussiness at an hour past normal bedtime. way to go grandmas!

just kidding, it had more to do with a messed up nap schedule. i think.

And now here is something we hope you'll really like.

it was a pretty good day despite the way it started off. today was Natalie's medical examination. you can see from the photo that she did not like it. let me first say that we were very thankful the Dr.s told us to move our appointment to today. it was supposed to be Saturday. there were 90 families scheduled to be there,so we would have been there for over three hours in a crowded facility. however, since we were rescheduled, it only took about a half hour. a half hour is all she could handle. everything checked out fine to our knowledge. they aren't exactly forthcoming with medical information here. her weight is 18.9 lbs for those who are curious. we didn't get her exact height, but hopefully will later. the rest of the day was pretty unremarkable. with a trip to a shopping market the only other real activity. we did get this video though. if this doesn't make you smile, then something is WRONG with you. hope you like it.

Video anyone?

i am going to attempt to post a video. i think the issues before wasn't the size, but the definition (eveyone now..."that's what she said"). so, these are taped in SD and not HD. the HD files are just to large and might not be supported by many players. these took place in the hotel playroom. The White Swan is the travel destination for so many adoptive families that they have a contract with Mattel to provide toys and a room for kids to play in. it is a nice touch and an opportunity for the adults to talk as well. we have met couple from Wisc., Arkansas, and New Orleans.

We have arrived

we are now at he glorious White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou. Holy crap was it frustrating though. i can tell you this, i won't be flying Schinzhen Airlines anytime soon. the picture you see is Natalie trying to call someone and figure out why our flight was delayed almost an hour.

it just got worse from there. after finally boarding, we sat at the gate for another hour. of course, not speaking the native tongue, i could not get an explanation as to why we weren't leaving. once we got in the air and Natalie feel asleep, i moved up to one of the two empty seats in the exit row for more leg room. i was promptly told by the attendant that i had to move back to my original seat. no explanation again (other had moved around by the way, i wasn't the only one).

after i begrudgingly returned to my seat Natalie soon woke up and decided to use Amy and I as a jungle gym. she wanted to get out of there as badly was we did.

we eventually made it to the hotel at 10 pm, and hour past Natalie's bed time. We could tell that she was incredibly tired, but she wouldn't settle down. she just kept moving all about. when we tried to hold her or put her down a scream fest broke out. it was easily the most frustrating moment of my young parenthood.

Amy isn't feeling well by the way. maybe a virus. wish her well.

Leaving soon.

sadly, it isn't to come home. we are flying to the south today to get her visa and citizenship paperwork going. walking through the airport and getting on a plane should be interesting. i guess this will be a trial run for the big flight.


playing with Ba ba.


guess i need to get use to this. she is already trying to get Daddy's money.

Stuff

just want to chat about a few things and post a few pictures. that OK with everybody?

we went to the Henan museum today. Henan (not pronounced like you think) is the province where Natalie is from. it was neat to read about the history of her hometown. something we can talk to her about later in life. the main thing that i wanted to say about our trip there was a conversation we had with some locals. they asked why we had a Chinese baby, of course. our guide explained that we were adopting her. as we started to walk away, one came back toward us and pointed at Natalie's brace (for her foot). apparently this lady asked why we would want a baby with this kind of problem. luckily i didn't know that is what she asked until we had walked away. our guide told her we wanted to help. the local lady responded that we were good people for helping her. had i had the opportunity or ability i would have forcefully said "becuase there is nothing wrong with her! just becuase she isn't valued by some here, doesn't mean we wont love her FOREVER!" maybe that would have caused a scene for them all to stare at.

i also wanted to let everyone know, as far as we know, Natalie's first two English words were "bye" and "apple."

just got done putting on the "special shoes" after a break from them. Natalie does not like to have her brace put on. once we tie them up, she is OK, but she HATES putting them on. big screams. big screams.

Out on the town

my brother, Jason, asked if we had taken her out much, so i will talk about that a little. we have taken her out, mostly with our guide/translator and once on our own. let me tell you, this is a unique experience. first of all, insanely HOT. had to be like 100 F out there today with a lot of humidity and traffic to heat things up more. second, with the Chinese people wanting to adopt so much of the western culture, i wish they would adopt the politeness of not straing at people. parents, please keep teaching your kids this becuase you don't want to see what happens when everyone stops doing it. chaos of discomfort.
i spoke a little before aobut them staring at Amy, but now it is 10 fold. everyone sees Natalie with two white people and with the brace on her feet and they can't stop staring. i am not talking about the once look. this is full on i am watching TV staring. i understand that they don't see anything wrong with it, but dang, they should. it makes Amy and I very uncomfortable.
when they are polite and wave and interact with her, we enjoy that. but the staring like we are zoo animals has got to stop. our guide gave us cards that say who we are and that we came to adopt Xue Er, but we have had little oportunity to show anyone. oh well.
we do like looking around at the sites and culture and it is good for Natalie to see people like her, so we endure occasionally. most everyone in the hotel is great. all very friendly and all wanting to speak a little English. believe me, i appreciate that becuase I know they don't have to cater to us. i will say that we are looking foward to our stay in Guangzho. there should be a lot of adoptive familes there and a bit more socialization.
also, i spoke a bit earlier about having to raise a child in a strange environment. an example of that is we can't wash and of her dishes or give her any water without boiling it or using bottled water. do you realize how big of a pain in the butt that is? spekaing of butt, and this is just gross, we aren't allowed to flush toilet paper here. pipes are too old and small in the city. it has to be just thrown away. enjoy the comforts of home folks.
finally, i took a cab ride to the Wal-mart, yes they have Wal-marts here, and it cost me $1. it was about a 10 minute cab ride. how much would that cost me in NYC, $15-20?

daddy feeding her cheerios.

i call this one "pretty face."

reading the newspaper.

i do have some videos i have taken, but don't have any video editing software on this computer. i may send them to me brother to see if he can do something with them.

Success

although we find it a bit bizarre, she did sleep through the night. the reason it is weird is that she fell asleep, after some effort, at exactly 9pm. she woke up at exactly 6:30am. this is precisely the time the orphanage told us she sleeps and she hit them both on the head. funny.

she seems a bit less grumpy this morning too. hopefully the full nights rest and a decrease in the fever (fingers crossed) is helping that.

btw, Amy keeps picking on me for my spelling mistakes or mistypes. in my defense, i am usually typing in limited light, i am using a netbook with a small screen, and the GoToMYPC screen that i have to use to get to blocked sites is also a bit smaller. that enough excuses?

Day 2 with Natalie

those papers in my hand means that we are official Natalie's Ma ma and Ba ba. Yes, it is surreal.

so, day 2 has not been as great as day one. she didn't sleep much last night. this is understandable given the changes she is experiencing, but it doesn't make it great either. she also had a bit of a fever today as well. so, not sleeping and having a fever make for a fussy baby. we have consulted both Chinese and American Drs. on the fever and are hoping it is nothing serious. She seemed to make some strides towards better behavior later tonight before she went down to bed. we are hoping for a bit more sleep tonight.

sadly, a sick Natalie wants Ma ma a lot more than Ba ba. actually, she wants very little to do with me right now. i am capable of realizing that she is used to female caretakers and will reasonably seek one out in time of distress, but that doesn't make it hurt any less when she pushes me away or turns away from me. i'll survive though as I know that better days will come. it wasn't like this all day, but i will say that Amy's arms are VERY tired.

thank you all for your well wishes and comments. we love reading every one of them.

Natalie

this is the smile we have been waiting to see.

we sent here this phone (and the outfit) in a care package about a month ago.

this was the first time Amy held her at the registartion office.

Forever Family

Natalie has arrived. she is amazing and we could not be happier to have her in our lives.

the attached picture is our official registration pic. as you can see, her hair has grown and out and she is a beautiful little girl. pay no attention to the stupid grin on my face.

she is doing great so far. she took just a few minutes to warm up to us, but once we gave her some food she was good to go. she took to me just a bit quicker than Amy. you know that melted my heart.

she took a nap in the room already. she seems to like any type of food as she hasn't refused anything yet. btw, i have yet to go solo on a diaper change.

regarding her foot. she has been wearing a brace now for 4 months according to the orphanage rep that brought her. it seems to have helped a lot. she is crawling just fine. we were instructed to take the brace off from 4-6 each day and the foot looks so much better than it did in the picture we first received. she is even able to pull herself up and walk with assistance. we are very happy about this. also, she loves music and likes to dance. she is wonderful.

we can't wait for everyone to meet her. we know you will fall in love with her the minute you see her just like we did.

please leave some comments for us as we would love to hear what you think of our wonderful Natalie Xue Er (pronounced "Shoe Are").

ZhengZhou

we have left Beijing and are now in the capitol city of the Henan province. things are a bit different here as they are not quite as used to seeing foriengers. one man nearly caused an accident looking at Amy. i think she likes the attention a little.

we went to the Great Wall yesterday. i just barely survived. that is a lot of stairs in a very thin atmosphere. it was rough, but worth it. the wall is amazing and we only saw a very tiny bit of it.

we went to a pizza place last night hoping for something a bit closer to home. i don't know about you, but i don't recall having a chicken, corn, and blueberry sauce pizza at home. some very weird varities, but some that were close to normal.

i am writing this to you on what is Sunday night here. that means in less than 12 hours, we should be holding Natalie in our arms. we obviously can barely contain our excitemnet. we have our worries as well. we aren't just getting a daughter, but we are also trying to raise her for 2 weeks in an environemtn that is very different than what we are used to. upon return, we are raising her in a place that is even less familiar to her. many exciting challenges ahead. anyway, please do keep thinking about us and we will be thinking about you.

for those that might be interested, i have skype on this computer and will be using it to video chat with the family. if you have skype, then you can send me an add request and i may have some time to chat and you may get to see Natalie.