Well, we've been here a few days now and all is well. We got to Hong Kong safely and looked around a bit but didn't overdo it... lots of jetlag although we're all handling it relatively well... I've only slept 3-4 hours a night since we've been here... sure hope I get to sleep a full night soon!! Thomas is back on his regular schedule...kids are so resilient. Anyhow, our hotel in Hong Kong was gross to say the least...the rooms were about the size of a broom closet and stinky to boot. The windows were frosted so you couldn't even see outside. We all agreed that if we had to spend a week in a room like that with our babies we'd all jump out the windows...oh wait, they didn't open either!!!lol So, we made our way to Guangzhou. We took a bus, made it to the border, had to go through various lineups and then had to take a different bus to finish our journey, but we made it safely to Guangzhou. With trepidation, we opened our hotel room door only to find a gorgeous room! It's got an office area, a large living room area, large bedroom and gorgeous modern bathroom...we can definitely handle a week here with a baby in tow... plenty of room for her to play and the room was even set up with a crib.
So, Emma day. We got into the city around 12:30, unloaded, checked in and some of the group rushed out to lunch, I came up and changed, packed a diaper bag and donation bags and just got things together. At 3:00, we boarded the bus again and headed off to the Civil Affairs office. There were lots of other groups there and it was pretty chaotic! We had a variety of paperwork to fill out and then eventually, it was time for the babies to come into the room. We'd been stealing glances into the baby room trying to see our babies. They'd apparently been on a 4 hour bus ride to get here and waiting for us since 11:00am...pretty long, confusing and exhausting day for them too! Anyhow, finally around a quarter to 5, it was our turn. They started calling out names and a nanny would walk in and hand over your child. Finally, we hear our names and hers called - it's our turn. Thomas and Gary and I go up and they give me Emma. She immediately takes a strangle hold on my glasses and tries to forcibly remove them from my face!!lol All the babies have been really good. When we were first lead into the room to wait for our babies, there was one family left from the group before ours and when they brought their baby boy in, he screamed the house down for hours it seems... he just screamed and screamed... I looked around at our group and suddenly half the room was crying alon with him... I'm not sure if we were more upset for the little boy or by thinking that this is what it could be like for us!! Anyhow, our babies were all very well behaved and seemed more interested in everyone and everything around them more than completely upset. Emma just sat with us, she had a bottle and just calmly sat with Gary, Thomas or I. She wasn't smiling much but she wasn't crying either.
We finally got back to the hotel around 6:30 and all went to our rooms to enjoy our babies. Emma sat around and played with toys and she couldn't keep her eyes of Thomas. She was contorting herself every which way to follow him in the room. She's just over 10 months old and I'd say more in line with a 7-8 month old in her abilities, but she's really not far behind. She can sit by herself really well and she's starting to kind of commando style crawl. Her legs seem somewhat weak, but even just today, she started pulling herself up on us and trying out her legs... I'm sure in no time she'll be running circles around us - literally!!lol
Today (Monday) was another early day. We had to be down for breakfast by 7:00 am and on the bus by 8:10 to go sign the official adoption documents and get the passport paperwork done. We got back home around 12:30 and now we're hanging out... Gary went out to get some lunch and after that we'll go across the street and play some soccer or football with the balls we brought along and let Thomas run around a bit. He stayed at the hotel with my sister Susan today so at least he didn't have to endure hours of waiting around again!
As for Emma, we put her to bed at 9:30pm and had to wake her up at 6:30am - not a peep out of her!! Today, she's much more curious and adventurous than yesterday. She's also much more talkative and we're getting a lot more giggles and smiles... every day she should get more and more used to her new life.
Well, better get back to Emma now. Will post pics later.
