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.