Home Sweet Home!!

We are home everyone!!

The flight was long but Emily was a trouper once again. The flight attendents gave us a baby cot as we asked for a bulkhead seat. Emily slept for only 3 hours of the 10 hour flight, but she seemed to cope very well. The lady who sat next to me commented on how good Emily was, and I agreed!! I think all three of us were glad when the flight was over. We took a taxi from Vancouver airport to the ferry terminal. Emily fell asleep for 45 minutes. Then she slept for 1 1/2 hours on the ferry. She was exhausted and so were we.

In Nanaimo, we were met by our good friends, Diana and Brent, who were armed with balloons and a bunny for Emily. We were so pleased to see them and I was quite emotional!!! We had big hugs. Brent had driven our van to the ferry terminal (as it had the baby seat installed). Emily woke up as we met Diana and Brent and when we got into the van Emily had smiles for Diana, so cute!!!

Now it was time to meet the dogs and Sally, our lovely house sitter for 3 weeks. How was Emily going to react???? As usual she was all smiles for Sally. As far as we know, Emily had not seen dogs before and we were wondering if she would cry.

She danced and kicked her legs in excitement and babbled away. I can tell you all, this was a relief for Peter and I!! Sally, Diana and Brent were all surprised too, to see this little girl react with such enthusiasm and delight! I keep saying how LUCKY we are but we truly are!!!! Love you to bits Emily. I love your personality, your smiles, the way you warm my heart. You are so precious to mummy and daddy. Love you forever and ever!! xoxoxoxoxox

Our first night home, Emily went to sleep at 8 pm and woke up at midnight for play and a bottle. She went back down at 1:30 am and, wait for it, did not wake up until 12:30 in the afternoon!!!! I went into her room to see if she was ok as I could not believe how long she was sleeping. To get her to sleep, I lay her next to me on our bed. Singing to her seems to really calm her and she tries to sing while I am singing, it is so cute. She slowly goes off into a deep sleep then I carry her to her crib. This is our normal sleep routine now.

The next day her sleep time was different: went to sleep at 8 pm, woke up at 11 pm, then back to sleep 2:30 am and then slept until 9 am. So definitely jet lagged but at least Peter and I are getting some sleep. I could not sleep after putting Emily to bed at 2:30 am, so I read until 4:30 am then slept until 9 am. I am sure Emily will get into some sort of a sleep routine soon.

As far as eating solids - it's something we are working on. She really likes her baby cereal in the morning. She tried mummy's steamed carrots for lunch and finished them. Absolutely hated my butternut squash and spat every spoonfull out. But mummy is not giving up Emily, we will try them again later. For now I will give her the veggies she likes. She also tried blueberry-applesauce puree as well as yogurt and she liked them both very much. So at least she is eating some solids, but I am not pushing the solids as she has had a lot of changes in her little life so far.

Emily is having so much fun exploring some of her new toys as you will see in the pictures. It is so much fun watching her on the floor playing. Laying her on her tummy is working; she actually slid her self 2 feet towards me today and really worked those muscles. She really giggled when she made it to me and seemed so proud of herself. Peter had so much fun watching her dance and sing to toddler songs - she is quite the entertainer when music is on, and just loves to dance!!

To round this journey off, we thank everyone for their cherished comments on the blog and what a beautiful book this is going to be for Emily. We now start a FAMILY LIFE together, and we will be meeting family and friends very soon. So this is farewell for this blog and hope you have enjoyed our amazing journey to China to pick up our precious daughter Emily. As always, LOVE to EVERYONE!!!

Hugs and kisses, Julie, Peter and sweet Emily. xoxoxoxoxooxo

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