Thursday, 2 days to go...

We're on official countdown now. Today the Visa appointment went all well. Tonight we're going on a cruise on the Pearl River right next to our hotel. Tomorrow will be a bit of last minute shopping, as well as Emily's official oath at the American Consulate in the afternoon.

We're so lucky with Emily. I was speaking with one mother who was distraught and had been here for 16 days and had to continue as the baby they brought to her was gravely ill. Eventually the baby had to be returned to the orphanage and now they have a 16 mo. old that was brought to them. Oh, how painful that must have been for them! I can't even imagine.

Aina also tells us that there were at least two families this morning that had Visa problems and couldn't complete their paperwork. As a result, they too have to stay in country until it is all resolved.

Needless to say, this picture of Emily depicts our joy to be coming home soon !!!

Fish & Stuff

These photos are from inside the White Swan Hotel, where we are staying. There is a beautiful river at the base of this waterfall that is full of Koi fish. There is also a huge bird cage with about 15+ birds in another area - I had trouble taking a photo, so you'll just have to trust me ... there are birds.

Funny Factoid: I was explaining to Aina, our Chinese Coordinator, that Koi are illegal in Maine and how the man who owned the Chinese restaurant had fought the state for the ability to keep the Koi. I asked her what the big fuss was and why having Koi might be a problem. Her response ...

"I dunno, we call them goldfish."

There you have it folks. Mystery solved. They're goldfish. Same darned thing!

We're Smiling !

A great sign of her comfort and transition is that she's begun to smile and giggle. She especially likes to play horsey on Daddy. Of course, the minute I get my camera out, I can't seem to capture the actual cute smile...but these are at least cute-like.

We arrived in Guanzhou on Monday afternoon and it was a welcome change. This area, and especially the hotel, is very "westernized" and caters to travelers and English speaking patrons. There are a lot of cute shops very near and I've enjoyed buying little trinkets for Emily to have so that she knows she has things from her heritage as she grows.

Today Emily had her Visa photo taken and her official medical well-check that the US Government requires for entry. All went well !

Take care all!

Calligrapher

Our Chinese Coordinator, Aina, arranged to have a calligrapher come and do a special item for us for Emily - these are pictures of him in that process. The item reads The Year of the Dog (which is when Emily was born), it says her given Chinese name, it has her DOB down the right side and the date it was created down the left. It was pretty neat to watch him!

More cute photos

These are a couple from yesterday and today - napping with Daddy and playing in the kid's room here in the hotel.

China Traffic !

If you've never heard about or experienced China traffic, you wouldn't even believe it. There are seriously thousands and thousands of vehicles, people, mopeds and bikes on the road ... and absolutely no right of way! We've taken a taxi everywhere - they all are little Jetta type vehicles and all beat to crap. Getting into accidents is a normal everyday occurance for them. The roads are 2, maybe 3 lanes and they make them 5 and no one cares! They jockey in and out of lanes, constantly honking their horns...and I mean CONSTANTLY. The thing is, that's the total accepted practice here. They're not aggressive with each other, they don't yell or get angry or "flip the bird" or anything. They don't even look at each other, they just go. Totally amazing. Plus, pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way so don't even think about attempting to cross the road.

Rick says they drive like Buffy. Haha. We love you, Buf!

Cutie Patootie...

Blog fixed...sort of!

Day 1

Day 2

The problem, just so that you all know I'm not crazy, is that the blog webpage was translated into Chinese symbols, so I couldn't tell what was what. I eventually played trial and error a few times and figured some of the basics out...finally!

These are photos of our Sleeping Beauty. Today she had a fever, which scared Mommy (of course!) but Baby Tylenol and Amoxicillan seem to be doing their stuff.

FYI, Jolene said people were asking if we were near the Tsunami - we actually didn't even know there was one and we're currently dry, so all is good.

We can't read the chatbox, but we can read comments left on these individual posts.

More soon!

Love, Us

The moment we met Emily ...

Ni Hao from China !

Hello everyone, we finally have somewhat limited access to the blog - but we definitely can't view the chat box, so you'll just have to chat amongst yourselves...haha.

We arrived in Hong Kong local time 4:00pm on Sunday afternoon. We had a quick night's stay at the airport hotel and then were off again Monday a.m. to fly to Changsha. We arrived late a.m. and met our Chinese Coordinator, Aina. We went to the hotel to settle and then were soon off to meet our beautiful daughter, Emily. We can't seem to post pictures, so I'm going to have someone in the US posting them here after this. It's hard to describe the moment we met her, but when they walked in the room with the babies, we knew it was her immediately. She's beautiful and perfect and already Daddy's Little Girl. She barefuly fusses and generally cries only if she's hungry, tired or needs changes. It's amazing how gentle and quietly happy she is.

We have met quite a few couples from all around the U.S., including one couple from Topsham, Maine! It's been comforting as we're all in the same situation and can relate to one another.

The last few days have been adjusting to one another and trying to catch up on sleep and cure a few stomach issues. We will post more later and I will have photos posted separately!

We love you all!
The Beals (3 !)

Official Itinerary

Yay, we have our official itinerary!

We leave Saturday, September 15th ... and take a bunch of planes, fly a ton of miles, for a multitude of hours ... and then Emily comes to her Mommy & Daddy on Monday, September 17th !!

God is good.