Week 3

Amelie seems to be doing well and adjusting nicely. She is still sleeping well and eats like a piggy, David calls her his little hippo. We have been getting out quite a bit and so far she doesn't seem to be overstimulated. Man, I can't imagine life without her.

Week 2

A picture tells a thousand words and as you can see all is going well. A few sleep issues but she is a happy girl who loves meeting new people and adores her fur-sisters!

It's been a week already?

I can't believe we have been home a week already. Still a little jet-lagged, but we are all doing ok. Amelie sleeps like such a champ still, so we are counting our blessings, and our sheep too. She is also doing great with the potty training, I have cleaned a poopy diaper in 5 days. Pretty cool for only 8 months. Should we ever have a bio kid, I will train them early too. Finally got her an exersaucer so I can put her down for a few minutes at a time because man does 19 pounds get heavy! The pups adore her, and she them.

Signing off for the evening, going to go settle down with my O magazine and new 800 thread count sheets.....

Home at Last!

I am happy to announce that the de la Rosa family is finally home. Not the de la Rosa couple, the de la Rosa-party of 3-FAMILY. Amelie was an absolute trooper on the long journey home. I think I whined more than she did. Our trip home started with a bus ride to the Guangzhou airport where the 4 families who left on Friday encountered the oh-so-fun immigration counter stops and multiple security checks to get out of China. I swear, the next time I have to flash my passport so many times, it better get some stamps that say "Tahiti" and "Ireland". We boarded a quick flight to Hong Kong which got in past midnight. We got to the hotel at 1 am and our wake up call was at 6 am....yeah, that was a fun call. So up we went back to the Hong Kong airport to board the 16 hour flight back to JFK. Amelie slept almost the entire time. We were amazed. We tried to sleep, but when it's 50 degrees on the plane and people are coughing and sneezing all around you (oh, and I was one of them), it's kind of hard to dooze off in the upright position holding a sack of Chinese potatoes. I did get to watch The Hangover again though so there is a plus. Bradley Cooper, you fine! We touched down at JFK airport around 2 pm, or maybe am depending on which time zone your body is still on. Went through immigration again, where they super-friendly officers (eye roll) announced that baby girl is a US Citizen. We got some soup and a turkey sub (was craving those since in China they don't really do sandwiches or ministrone soup) and went to the gate for our flight to WPB and all three of us passed right out for a good hour. The three hour flight home was a breeze. We sat next to a fresh faced Delta Gamma sorority gal who entertained Amelie the entire time. Amelie sat on my lap and played with her new friend Molly and never once cried.

We had probably 30 people greet us at the airport, which we were pleasantly surprised to see. Amelie loved the attention, she is very curious about other people and had on a big grin. It was so wonderful to finally be home. Our amazing friends stuffed our freezer and fridge with delicious foods and Amy put a ton of welcome home signs all over. The three of us passed out around 11:30 and McStinky slept til almost 6 am, even though she did nothing but sleep on the plane ride back to the US. We all took a 5 hour nap on Sunday, which was probably dumb, but the three of us had no problems sleeping through the night that night either.

I did want to mention that my biggest concern was our giant dogs, and if they would like each other. We found out the next day when they were licking her that she loves them. She giggles when they kiss on her and she is always reaching out to grab them. Somehow, knock on wood, things are great so far.

Thank you once again to all who have supported us on this journey!

Headed home tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!

TGIF has a whole new meaning. Although we dread the three change of planes, long layovers and twenty hours of flight time we are so ready to start our new life as a family back home. I can't wait for you all to meet AJ. I am getting a little teary eyed thinking of leaving her home country and am thinking tonight of her biological mother. In just twenty four hours she will be an American citizen but I know a part of her heart, and mine, will always be here in China.

See you all soon!

She is getting a little better each day. Still a mama's girl, but she was flirting with her daddy for a good hour tonight on the bed, she would reach over and grab his nose, then turn her head and hide and giggle. She has the biggest smile I have ever seen. So freakin cute. But holy temper. HATES diaper and clothes changes. You would think we are pouring boiling water on her!

Everyone at the White Swan has the famous "red couch" pics with all the babies in their group. I thought for sure Amelie would have the "ugly face" but she did well! She is the third one on top. The second pic is with her buddy Emilin. The last pic is with our travel group. I have to say, you would think with 11 different families stuck together for this long there would be people on each others nerves but this group has been great. Everyone is so helpful and very sweet. A bunch of them live in ski areas, so we look forward to visiting them. Well, Amelie is finally asleep, two hours late tonight, so I am headed to bed now too....

More Photos

Nanchang Day 5 and 6

David and I skipped the local tours the last two days, mostly more shopping excursions to hit the pool to swim with our daughter instead. Our daughter, hah....still get goosebumps that I have a kid now. We did head out with some other couples to the Pizza Hut because there is only so much Chinese food this American gal can handle and I wasn't alone in that thought. Yesterday I decided to splurge and get a massage therapist to come to our room and give me an hour massage for 120 rmb (less than $20). Though the massage itself was wonderful, it wasn't exactly the world's most relaxing experience. The door was knocked on 3 times by our tour guides and housekeeping, the phone rang twice, and Amelie decided to have a blow out diaper for David which resulted in him dry heaving in the bathroom while changing her. The massause and I just started laughing because really...what else can you do. (replacement blogger insert: I would have paid very large amounts of money to see that!!!!!!)

Speaking of um, bodily functions, my daughter pee'd on the potty. Seriously, I am not going to be one of those mom's who updates her FB status everyday with their kid's accomplishments I promise but dude, she is only 8 months old and peed on the flippin potty. She was wearing split pants in her referral pics, so our guide told us the noise to make and how to hold her chunky theighs over the toilet. It actually worked. And speaking of massages, we were told by our guides to NOT use the 4th floor spa. Apparently an adoptive dad several groups ago, who is a very conservitive Christian, found out the hard way (pun intended) that the 4th floor spa offers a happy ending with their massages. The poor guy was traumatized for days. I wonder how many husbands would actually have just gone mum on the situation?
We have a new knickname for Amelie. We call her "Screechy Kitty" of SK for short. The girl sounds exactly like a kitten stuck in a drain when she cries. She has this scratchy and deep little screech that I find endearing but makes poor David want to run to the hills. Last night at dinner the other babies sat in their little highchairs and fed themselves. Nope, not Amelie. I got to eat standing up with her on my hip which the only one she would stop "the screech". Good times.
Off to Guangzhou tomorrow, I know the entire group is ready for a change of scenery. We have cabin fever and could use some boat drinks!

Guangzhou
All I can say is thank goodness we are finally here. We had to leave the hotel in Nanchang at 7:30 am to get to the airport and head to Guangzhou. The airport was fun experience, as in not. We all got to the gate and were feeding and changing our kids when a very kind old gentleman with pretty good English came over to inform us that had we known Mandarin we would have understood that the lady on the loudspeaker was informing us that our gates had changed and would be boarding there in just a few minutes. Fantastic. Of course our new gate was upstairs, and this small airport had an escalator down, but not up. With a little teamwork and alot of sweat we all helped each other drag strollers and luggage and babies up a long flight of stairs. Did I mention no a.c. in the airport? We all looked like we were going to pass out when we got to where we needed to be. An hour later we arrived in Guangzhou. Our little Empress did amazing on her first plane ride, didn't shed a tear. I was in awe. I think she feels bad for making dinner so much fun for us last night. Ok, maybe not. But I am glad that for once she wasn't one of the meltdown kids on the plane!
For those of you not in the China adoption world, everyone who adopts in China has to go through Guangzhou as the American Consolute is here. The hotel, the White Swan or Baby Hotel as the locals call it, sits on the gorgeous Shaiman Island. It is a cross between Naples (Florida) and Savannah. It is surrounded by the Pearl River and there are palm trees everywhere, cafes with tables outside, and parks everywhere. There is even a Starbucks, and very little traffic. It is an oasis in a sea of cars and noise and people and people and more people. A different world from Nanchang. The group went to a really yummy Thai dinner tonight. Options, I love having actual options besides Chinese food I can't identify and near-pizza!
Off to sleep. The wee one has us both looking like the mug shot of Nick Nolte. We have another big day tomorrow, but this time I will start the day right, jump started with a Starbucks Ice Caramel Macchiato!