Last Day In China

It's hard to believe our time in China has come to an end. Mixed feelings really, sadness for Emily as we are taking her away from her birth country, but then again after seeing a little of China we know that she is going to have many opportunities in Canada and a better life. A mummy and daddy that love her so dearly, family and friends that will also love her. She is going to be surrounded in love, and when she cries she will know that we are not far away to comfort her.

It has also been a comfort for us to see the Chinese people put their thumbs up when they find out that Emily is our adopted daughter. They also know she will have a better life and give us smiles as they are happy for her.

We have made friends in Nanchang with two of the locals who were staying at our hotel on business and we swapped emails and they have already emailed us and want to keep in touch when we go back to Canada. One lady has a 4 month old baby girl and sent us a picture of her yesterday. They adored Emily, and would come and see her every day at breakfast. All in all very friendly people here.

We are glad to be coming home to our pets (thank you Sally for sending us updates on our dogs and bunnies, we especially loved the photos!!) and the comforts of home and are so looking forward to getting Emily into a proper routine.

Today we just relaxed and did not go out with our group. We went for a walk this morning to the inside market to get last minute things and returned to the hotel to get Emily to bed for a good afternoon nap. She is now sleeping and this is the longest afternoon nap she has had since Nanchang. She has been sleeping for 2 hours already and may even sleep for 3 hours and be ready for the farewell party tonight with all our group. Yulin is taking us all to a restaurant to have Peking Duck!!

So we will see everyone in Canada very soon. I am dreading the long flight home!!!!!! Love and hugs, the Hughes'

P.S Tina the 2nd picture is especially for you, she looks so cute in your outfit! Love you xoxox

Shopping Day

Today was a scheduled shopping day at a silk factory and then the multi-floored Pearl Market.

Silk has a long history in China, and we all probably know how silk strands are gathered to make threads. We learned today that China has developed a new unique type of silk product. By getting 2 silkworms to work together to make 1 cocoon, the strands overlap and mesh together. The strands then can't be separated. Workers stretch the cocoons by hand and layer them to create duvets that take advantage of the hypoalergenic properties of silk. The duvet filling is stable, and doesn't need to be quilted (quilting is a sign of a fake). The silk itself can't be washed or it will shrink, but all the coverings can be washed.

The Pearl Market had 6 floors of merchandise, 2 floors devoted to freshwater and saltwater pearls. The small vendors on the lower floors were quite desperate. We had been warned that bartering was a necessity. The vendors frequently quote a price 5 times the true value and we found the haggling both amusing and tiring.

Emily was again her happy self today. We put her down for a late afternoon nap and woke her up to try to get her back on schedule. Not one cry when she finally woke up after being changed and dressed - only smiles and giggles. We're going to take it easy tomorrow and skip the excursion to Tiananmen Square. We'd rather rest-up for our long flight home day after next.

Emily's Medical and Cute Pandas!!

Today Emily had to have her medical at the International Centre for her citizenship. We met our guide in the hotel lobby at 8:30 am and we were bused to the Centre. Her medical examination went very well. She is on target for her weight to height, but is petite compared to North American children (which we expected). She is developing normally with her hand and eye coordination, but is a little delayed in sitting up on her own. She's catching up quickly, with all the one-on-one attention she's receiving from mummy and daddy. She smiled all through her examination, which the doctor noticed and commented how lucky we are. We couldn't agree more - Emily is a blessing to us and boy, do we agree that we're lucky!

I was worried about another hectic, busy day for Emily, but she slept through last night and woke up at 6:30 am. She really is a trouper with these busy days, even though she does not get her long afternoon naps because we are out touring with our group. The last 2 days she has only napped for around 2 1/2 hours each day off on and off but it does not seem to upset her. She wakes up with a smile and is ready to entertain everyone!!

After the medical we came back to the hotel to get ready to go to the Beijing Zoo. We opted to just see the pandas then come back to the hotel to chill out with Emily. Emily slept through the pandas but woke while we were relaxing by the duck and swan pond. She watched them intently, following their movements and giggled away.

Emily has learnt 2 new tricks today - I have been putting her on her tummy to work her arm and leg muscles, and she raised herself to her knees in the crawling position. For her second trick, she held her own bottle tonight to feed herself!!! We are so proud of her!
Emily got through another busy day with flying colours, but mummy and daddy are going to go to bed early tonight as tomorrow we have a shopping excursion in the morning, then in the early evening we will see a Chinese acrobatics show.

We are always excited to see everybody's messages and today we were really pleased to receive a message from Peter's parents and sister-in-law. Peter's parents do not have a computer, but they saw our blog on their friend's computer. So now they have seen pictures of their grand-daughter, how exciting is that!!!! We'd also like to thank Uncle Nigel for his numismatic gift for Emily - a part of her heritage we'll have fun discussing. Love to everyone, 2 more days and we will be home!!! xoxoxoxox

Our Hotel in Beijing.

Great Wall Of China

Today we all met in the hotel lobby at 8:30 am to be bused to a jade factory, the Great Wall of China and then a cloisonne factory. It proved to be a very long day for these young babies as we ran into traffic delays. We got back to the hotel at 6 pm. Emily slept an hour here and there on the bus but she did not get her long afternoon nap, but was happy even with just the short naps. She seems to be a very contented happy little thing, still offering smiles to everyone even when she is dead tired!
We want her to have more cereal in her diet, so this evening we made up a batch, but she screwed up her face at it. We remembered how much she loves music, and as soon as we put some on for her, she looked up and started making "Ba,ba,ba" sounds and move her head from side to side laughing! She soon finished the whole baby bowl of cereal! We are having so much fun with Emily and she is just a delight to have in our lives. We feel so lucky, lucky, lucky!!!!!!
She was awake at 4 am this morning for a bottle and then slept again until 6 am. So we are all tired now and will go to bed, as we have to be down in the lobby for 8:30 am. We will go for Emily's medical exam to meet the entry requirements of Canada, and then in the afternoon we will go to the Beijing Zoo to see the pandas. Looks like another long day; they sure keep you busy here, and it will be nice to be home in Canada in a regular routine (after the jet-lag wears off)!

Back to Beijing

Up this morning at 4 am!! Emily actually went to sleep earlier than usual the night before, so she had 10 hours sleep. The flight was 2 hours and Emily was awake for the first hour then slept for the 2nd hour. I gave her a bottle at take off for her ears and she was absolutely fine - no tears the whole trip!! We were so proud of her; lets see what happens on our return flight home.
Our room here is lovely and so much better than our first night here before we went to Nanchang. Our new room has been recently renovated and everything is new, very quiet and comfortable. As soon as we got here we had paperwork again and we were supposed to have a group picture but Emily was too tired. We put her to sleep and she slept for 2 hours. We wanted her to get her sleep so we missed the trip to the Summer Palace, but that is ok because we have a busy day tomorrow which starts at 8:30 am. We will go to the Great Wall of China as well as some factories.
Now we are heading out to explore the hotel and the area, boy I do not miss the car horns - it is so quiet here! Good night everyone.
Just to let everyone know they charge you for internet use at this hotel so we will be online just to blog. Love to everyone. xoxoxoxoxo

More Pictures of Nanchang

Friday Already and Amazing Progress!!

This post is going to be short and sweet as we have been having problems with connecting to our blog.
Emily has been just amazing!! Nigel (my step brother) arrived on Wednesday from Shanghai and we all went to August 1st Square, named for an uprising on August 1st 1927 and it is the birthplace of the Peoples Liberation Army. It was lovely to see Nigel and he was very pleased to meet Emily!! Emily had smiles ready for him which he could not believe. We all had dinner together at our hotel, then we all came back to our room to put Emily to bed. Once again she was smiling and babbling to Nigel and he is amazed how attached she is to me already. I got her off to sleep and put her in the crib and we had a nice chat together and then it was time for us to go to bed, so Nigel left for his hotel.
Thursday morning, we arranged to meet down in the lobby with Nigel and our group to be bused with our guide to a local park. We had an hour at the park walking around taking pictures, then back to the bus, and said a quick goodbye to Nigel as he had to go by cab to meet Luke. We planned to meet them later that afternoon after Emily had had her nap. Emily slept for 3 1/2 hours. We met Nigel and Luke at the Square to do some shopping for Emily. Luke is Chinese so we were relying on him to get us some good bargains! We needed a suitcase, which we bought. We were also able to find: a small chinese tea set, a porcelain tiger ornament (Emily was born in the year of the tiger, and porcelain is famous in Jiangxi) and a calligraphy brush for one of her birthdays when she gets older. It was getting time for Emily's dinner so we all headed back to the hotel. After dinner, Luke took a picture of Emily's finding ad and will translate it for us and send it by email. We really appreciate all the effort both Nigel and Luke took to visit us and assist with our shopping. The traffic here is absolutely ludicrous; you really put your life into your own hands, even just walking on the sidewalks.
On Friday, we went on a shopping safari with 2 Chinese ladies that had taken a liking to Emily. They were staying at the Hotel on business, and said they would take us to some stores to find some gifts for Emily. I absolutely hated the 3 cab rides and so many times thought we were going to be in an accident!! Just crazy, weaving in and out of cars, with pedestrians trying to cross anywhere and the cab honking at them to get out of the way. The cab ploughed through a packed pedestrian crosswalk while they had right of way! I had my eyes closed most of the ordeal and was so relieved to be out of the cab!! We did manage to find some picture books for Emily with both Chinese and English subtitles, and also a book of Chinese traditional stories. We later found a knitted toque with a tiger on it. We were looking for Chinese traditional silk dresses for her, but no luck. Every store seems to have Western style clothes. It is really hard to find traditional Chinese things here. Disney seems to dominate the branding for children. Chaiman Mao has been usurped by Mickey Mouse!
I do not think I could get used to the honking here. It is continuous, very annoying and adds to the considerable noise. China is very noisy - stores blare music, and people shout a lot. It is illegal to honk your horn in Beijing but we still heard it there to a degree.
Today we got Emily's Chinese passport, so our business here in Nanchang is complete. In our room we found a book about Jiangxi province, highlighting the significant accomplishments achieved over the last decade. Industry (including high-tech) has overtaken agriculture, and the standard of living has increased dramatically. We hope to return some day for a more relaxed tour. We will be taking Emily away from her birthplace, to a very different land. We wish we could let her birth mother know that we will love and care for her, and be the best parents we can. Our goal is to privide her with more opportunities in her future.
Saturday we have an early start, 4 am! We have to leave the hotel at 5:30 am to go to Beijing for the next 5 days, so packing again tonight.
When we came back to the hotel at 4 pm today, Emily played on the bed with us for 2 1/2 hours, laughing and giggling. She has made progress in the last 4 days. She can sit by herself without falling over without being propped up with pillows, does not mind to have a diaper change (in fact is very happy to lay on her back), can roll over many times, loves her bath (laughing and giggling, playing with the water toys), will contently play on the king bed without crying for me to pick her up, is trying to push herself up when on her tummy, and passes toys from one hand to the other. I played see-saw with her and she moves her arms to do it again. She is also having fun with daddy and it is so lovely to see them together. I cannot say how amazed I am that Emily is so used to us. She's bonding very well and seems so relaxed with us in just 5 days. She's quicker to give us huge gummy smiles and is a very happy baby!!! How lucky we are. She does fight to go to sleep in the evening; it takes about 1/2 hour or less, but fidgets so much when I am rocking her. Usually she coos herself to sleep in my arms and it is so cute! We love her so dearly!

A More Relaxed Day!

Sorry everyone - we had trouble connecting through VPN - took 2 days to fix things. Strange crashes and messages...

Emily woke up very happy. I actually got in the bathtub with her. She whimpered for about 2 secs, but was distracted by the light-up rubber ducky we had brought and some stacking cups that we put into the bathtub too. She watched intently as I poured water onto her legs and arms. She kept turning to look at me, then back to the toys. I washed her hair and still no tears, and continued to wash her. Peter took her out of the bathtub and dried her. We all dressed and went down for breakfast. Emily had 3/4 of her bottle, about 8 spoons of baby cereal, steamed egg (which she loves) and a tiny piece of bread. She seems to love her food!! Our breakfast was buffet style: bacon, steamed eggs, green Chinese veg, toast and fresh fruit. Very good breakfast with many other chinese options of food.
We came upstairs and prepared a diaper bag ready for our trip to a huge Walmart with our group. We were bused to the Walmart with our Facilitator Yulin and our lovely guide Mary. We looked for some smaller clothes for Emily but there wasn't much choice. We bought a 3 month old Chinese style top and bottoms. I do not have very many small clothes with me, but sometime this week we will buy clothes for her at other stores. We came back to the hotel around 12. Emily had 1/2 a bottle and was happy to hang out on the King size bed babbling and playing. We skyped our friends Mike and Jeannie this morning and they were just over the moon to see Emily, and could not believe how comfortable she felt with us. Emily smiled and babbled with them, amazing!!! So glad we were able to show Emily to Mike and Jeannie!!! Hopefully we can connect with Grandma tonight and hopefully my sister in England very soon.
Emily was getting tired and a little cranky, so time for a nap. She fell asleep at around 1:15 pm. Peter is reading all about Nanchang and I am catching up with the blog, ironing, and writing my journal. So happy, happy, happy!!!!!!!
This afternoon at 4 pm we had to go downd to floor 1 to fill out more paperwork - this time for Emily's visa to enter Canada. Emily slept for 2 1/2 hours this afternoon and woke up in time to go downstairs for yet more paper work. Peter filled out the paperwork and Emily and I hung out together with other mums. At 5:30 pm all our group met down in the Chinese restaurant to have dinner with Yulin. It was Yulin's (our facilitator's)last evening in Nanchang. We will see her again when we go back to Beijing on Saturday. She has been amazing and really cares about these children - and what a wonderful job she has, putting forever families together!
After dinner Emily was getting very tired, so we bathed her, which she was ok about - but no smiles in the bathtub yet. She is just mesmerized by it all!! Diaper changes are not happy times for Emily. I try to distract her by putting toys in her hands and talking to her, but oh boy she does not like it one bit!!! Sorry Emily, but diaper changes are a necessity! I am sure it will get better. Apparently all the other parents said the same thing abut their babies: as soon as you lay them down they scream! I asked Yulin if they wore diapers in the orpahange, as we have read that they put these young babies on the potty!!! She said in a Foster home they would not wear diapers, but have the split pants, but she thinks in the orphanage they probably did wear diapers?? We can see that these babies were very well cared for, which makes us happy. In fact we have forgotten to mention that we received a photo album which contains pictures of Emily aat 8 days old!! Also a picture of Emily with the director of the orphanage, and pictures of the outside of her orphanage. Such a treasure to have for Emily.
We are finally legal parents to Emily, all the important paperwork has been done in Nanchang. More paper work in Beijing to come.
Emily went down to sleep at 7:45 pm. It took a little longer to get her down, maybe 1/2 an hour. She woke up at 10 pm screaming and straining. Poor Emily had been constipated and has not had a B/M until that moment. When I laid her down, well, all let loose in the deriere area, as well as big tears. I had given her a little bit of prune puree with her cereal, and I guess it was finally working. It seems all the other babies were are also constipated. I am so glad she has had a B/M. It took me an hour to get her down again but she slept until 7 am. Another lovely day with our daughter. She is very clingy and is happy to be with us, as long as we are holding her. We are making the most of this precious time with her.

Our Hotel in Nanchang

Beautiful hotel, with all the amenities we need. There is a crib, stroller, baby bath, and even a potty waiting in our room. Much noisier than Japan, but a very comfortable hotel. The bed is hard but we both slept well. Here are some pictures of our room.

Wow - Forever Family Day!!!

We flew to Nanchang with our Facilitator Yulin. The rest of the group left the night before. As soon as we got to the hotel, without even checking our bags in, Yulin rushed us to the third floor to get our baby! The gifts were in the suitcase for the orphanage and we were not prepared to be so rushed, but I did not care - I wanted to see baby Emily. I felt very relaxed and calm and was not nervous, just excited to see her! Peter had a little headache but had the video camera at the ready! On entering the room, 3 Chinese ladies called to us and said "Lidi, this Lidi" I turned to them and there she was, our precious little baby who we had waited so long for. They were giving her a bottle. I bent down and stroked her face and said "Hi Lidi" she turned to me and stared!! This is when I cried! I said "She's beautiful." Her carer said "How beautiful?" I spread my arms out wide and said "This much" They laughed and handed her to me. She whimpered a little bit and just stared at me, then went straight for my earrings!! I kissed her and hugged her, she really is beautiful - but I am biased! Now I have to share with daddy so it was daddy's turn to hold her while I took some pictures. She went straight to Peter, no tears!!! Then it was paper signing time. By now Peter's headache had turned into a full blown Migraine. Yulin got really worried about him and fetched some water so he could take some advil. He had turned white and was drenched in sweat! I think Yulin thought he was having a heart-attack! We managed to finish the hand-off paperwork by 12 and went to our room to prepare the gifts. Our suitcases were not even unpacked and we had to be back downstairs in the lobby for 1 pm. Peter was not feeling very well at all and vomitted! I carried Emily around and tried to prepare some things for the afternoon. Emily was no problem and was very happy to be carried around but did not like it when I attempted to put her on the bed. She definitely wanted to be held. Peter rested for 45 mins but we had to go downstairs as more important paper work had to be done. He felt a little better but not much. Poor guy looked ill!! I took the stroller that they had left in the room for us and off we went. Paper work took 4 hours!!! We have a large group, 10 families to get through. Emily was a trooper, so happy and energetic amusing everyone with her babbling and giggling!! It is like we have been together forever; she is amazing!! I am waiting for bedtime!!! Then she might not be so happy.
We got back to the hotel at 5 pm, changed her diaper, which she did not mind this time, gave her a bottle and some baby cereal which she devoured!! We then went to the restaurant for dinner. Once again she was amazing, smiling and happy to have some banana and a little rice. We took some pictures in the restaurant and then it was time to go back to the room. By now she was feeling quite sleepy so I did not want to bathe her tonight as she had had so many changes today, and I knew she would be asleep very soon. I put her on my chest on the king bed and she fell asleep within 5 minutes. I put her in her crib and she did not wake, and slept from 8 pm until 6:50 am!!! She woke up babbling and we peered into her crib and she stared at us, probably thinking "Where am I" but no tears!! What an amazing day!!! We feel so blessed to have Emily in our lives; finally we are a family and it feels so right!! I love being a mummy and I know Peter is so happy to be a daddy. He keeps looking at Emily and saying she is a darling! She has been very happy to be held by Peter, he has fed her, given her a bottle but has yet to change a diaper!!! No messy diaper yet!
Her eye-hand coordinations is very good. She can turn over tummy to back and sit up propped up with pillows. She is very small - 6 month clothes are a bit big for her. She babbles and smiles and is a happy baby!
Enjoy the cute adorable pictures of our daughter EMILY!!! Love to everyone back home xoxoxoxo

Arrived in Beijing

We had a smooth flight from Osaka to Beijing and arrived at around 4 pm. We were met at the airport by our guide Fay and taken to our hotel for the night. We met our Facilitator Yulin and 3 other couples from Canada. All our Nanchang group left earlier and we will leave early tomorrow morning. The other 3 couples will go to different provinces to pick up their babies/children. We went out to dinner with Yulin and another couple who have adopted 6 children!!!!! Two from Ethiopia and 3 from China and are here for #4. They aso have 2 biological children. They adopt older children so they have not had to wait as long. An amazing couple with plenty of experience with adopted children. They are here with their 11 and 14 year old daughters from China. Such lovely girls!!
So tomoorow we will get a wake up call at 4 am, and leave the hotel at 5 am!!! Off to Nanchang we go to meet our sweet baby girl. Yulin said we will meet Emily almost straight away after arriving in Nanchang!! Whoo Hoo, I cannot believe this time has come. Will I be able to sleep tonight??? I am pretty tired so I think I will.
Goodnight everyone and the next time you will read our blog we will have EMILY xoxoxo

Sad Farewell to our girls!!!

It has been an amazing week in Japan; we are so glad we decided to come. If we did not host Japanese students we would not have come here. A big huge thank you to all the girls for spending time with us and making our stay in Japan memorable. We feel so blessed that seven girls came to see us. We had so much fun and laughter together. Saying goodbyes is always sad but you never know when we will meet again. Sayonara girls and see you again, either in Canada or Japan!!!!!!! WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today's blog was a bit of a rush because we have to pack for our trip to Beijing. Two more sleeps and then we get to meet our cute baby girl!! Can't wait to hug you!