Kylie is Offically our Daughter

Thank you for your beautiful notes after our last blog. It really means a lot to us to have our friends and family following our journey with us.

Today began a bit early with appointments back at the Provincial Adoption building. We had our official photo taken of Paul, Kylie, and me and then meetings with two government officials. They each reviewed all of our documents and information then asked us a series of personal questions. Nothing too intense, so that was a relief. Jackson was with us and as charming as always, so the officials (both woman) warmed right up to us. After our second meeting, we received our final approval and now Kylie is legally ours. However, we can not travel with her yet as she needs her new documents and a visa. I think that is why we will be in China 9 more days.

Kylie had a bit of a rough night in that she was very restless and I don't think she slept all that soundly until early this morning. The orphanage director had told us that she tends to hit her head on the mattress as she is nodding off...perhaps trying to fight sleep. Well, after she fell asleep sitting up, and us settling her in flat, she seemed to be ok for a short while. I finished up a few things and headed to bed. I woke up a couple of hours later to the sound of her pounding her forehead in her crib. I was successful in soothing her for a bit, but then she would start the bumping again. It wa spainful to hear her doing that so I finally picked her up and snuggled her in with me. She was very restless, but I found if I put my hand on her chest, she would relax and go back to sleep peacefully. I didn't end up sleeping all that much, but I don't think I would have anyway being so full of this new life with us I am finding it hard to sleep.

When she woke up this morning, she just opened her eyes and looked at us for a while. No crying yet. We dressed her and took her down to the breakfast buffet (incredible breakfast here at The White Swan!). She did not want anything to eat, but when we came upstairs, she downed her first bottle. So glad we are getting something in her. She was wonderful at the appointments today though we did see her first cry. She got very restless again so we gave her another bottle and she fell sound asleep in Paul's arms. She slept the whole bus ride home and is still asleep. Thinking she is taking about a 3 hour nap, so that is good.

I can feel Kylie opening up slowly. When she first woke up this morning, she was still unresponsive to my touch and even pushing me away at times. We are going to give her the space to let us in when she is ready. She does look so intensely at me, then turns her head away quickly. But, I can see and feel her slowly getting used to me. When we returned to our room after our appointments, I spent some time on the bed with her. She was playing with her cups but when I approached her, it seemed like she wanted me near. I then lied down and sat her on my tummy. She played with her cup, but then reached out to my hand. After that, I bent my knees up and she leaned back and fell asleep. All small steps, but that's how it has to be for now...on her terms.

If all goes well, we may go out to the pool when she wakes up to have a little family time in the water. (There are two pools here...one lap pool and one shaped pool with a waterfall at one end...very pretty!) You can see more of the hotel and the pool at their website: www.whiteswanhotel.com

The hotel is beautiful with a tall waterfall and Koi fish pond inside. The past two mornings we have sat by the pool for breakfast because Jackson loves it so much. The fish are giant!

The hotel sits right on the Pearl River which we can see a bit of out of our room's window. It is beautiful and interesting as many old types of fishing boats and barges run along this river. At night, the area lights up a bit and we can see coloful ferry boats going up and down the river. We may try to do one of these boat rides later in the week.

The area is full of small shops and restaurants, lots of place for us to explore. We hear you must bargain for good deals, but that it is expected. I'll be giving it my best, though I'm not so good at it.

We had our laundry done at a nearby shop yesterday that allows us to use a free stroller for doing our laundry there. We also received a "Going Home Barbie" in our room from the hotel which is a blond barbie holding an Asian baby.

The hotel is full of Caucasian people with Asian babies. They are all so beautiful and you can feel all the love here. We had the opportunity to meet one woman at the Provincial Office today who is adopting a beautiful and sweet 7 year old girl. When we were waiting for our elevator in the lobby there yesterday, we had seen her come in with her orphanage group. It brought tears to all of our eyes to see this young girl (all dressed up in a pink dress) coming to meet her parents for the first time.
She was so graceful and timid and we saw her reach for the girl's hand next to her. So many touching stories here and such a world away from the comforts and family we all have at home.

Well, I think my baby may be waking up. May be time for us to head to the pool. On my next blog, I am going to try to catch up on the sightseeing we did in Beijing before we headed down here so that you can see the other interesting places we visited.

Happy day everyone!

We are Now Four...

We had an amazing day today. We now have a beautiful, healthy and sweet baby girl playing on our bed. We are all so thrilled and a bit exhausted, but amazed at this incredible day and this special little girl.

I am going to do a short blog tonight with some photos. I think we all need to get to bed as we need to get up early to head back to the government building where we met the babies to do some additional paper work and interviews with the adoption officials.

At 2:30 today we went to the Provincial Adoption Office to meet the babies. It was a large, nicely decorated room on the 8th floor. There were smaller rooms off this big room and we could see some little ones playing through a space in the curtain. Needless to say, you could feel the energy and anticipation of our group as we waited to begin. We got cameras, paperwork, and gifts for the orphanage director and caretakers ready. Suddenly, the commotion began and they called the first family. We were about 3rd or 4th to be called. As we walked over, we could see our baby Kylie, a little peanut in her nannies arms. As I got close, she reached out to me...so incredibly amazing. Even the nanny was amazed. I scooped her into my arms and that's where she remained for the next 2 hours.

Kylie has not cried or even whimpered yet, I think she is just taking it all in right now and is most likely shutting down a bit to cope with all of this loss. She is very interested in everything around her and watches it all so intensely. The orphanage director said she is very quiet and gentle, but does not let any other babies take her toys. That's how she has been tonight, too. She has been very quiet and sweet, but definite in what she doesn't want...like food or a bottle. She does love her colorful stacking cups that we brought (thanks for the advice Pat!). She has been playing with them for hours and even carried them while we went out for dinner with the group. I think she even fell asleep with one in her hand.

It may take a few days for us to see the real her. She actually just fell asleep while sitting in the crib because I think she was afraid to lie down. Poor litle thing. I wish I could judt let her know that it will all be alright.

Jackson has been an outstanding big brother and such a trooper amidst all the commotion today. He is thrilled to be a big brother and has been glowing all afternoon.

Well, I think I need to go to bed now, too, as we have another busy day tomorrow. More pictures and updates as soon as we can catch our breaths a bit!

Our love to you all...

Busy Day today!

We left our hotel at 6:30 this morning with our group including a rep from our adoption agency, a National Tour Guide from China and the other eight couples adopting from our province. We just returned at 7:30pm.

The day started with a trip to a beautiful local park, then to the Summer Palace where we had a Dragon Boat ride, and then to a pearl factory. We had lunch near the factory, then headed off to The Great Wall (amazing!!). After that, we drove by the Olympic Village for a photo-op through our bus windows (not allowed to stop near the area), then to a silk factory, and finally to dinner. Whew!! Oh, forgot to mention that it was about 100 degrees with a bright blue sky...VERY hot!

Jackson was such a trooper and so good. We had a really fun day, but we are exhausted. At the end of the day, they informed us of our itinerary for tomorrow. We will begin again at 6:30 with breakfast and a meeting with the pediatrician travelling with us. I think he is going to talk about our babies and caring for them over the first week. After that, we head out to The Forbidden City then on to the airport for a late afternoon flight to Guangzhou. I think we get into Guangzhou around 9pm, so we may not be able to update the blog until the morning.

Our guide informed us that they have been in contact with our orphanage and that all the babies are healthy with no fever or colds as of today.

On Monday, July 14th at around 2:30 in the afternoon, we will meet our baby Kylie! Wow, it is so close and we are so excited to finally be so near our baby.

I promise that we will catch up with more pictures on our day today and then with pictures of our "Gotcha Day".

One last cute note. Our guide gave each family a stuffed panda for our babies. She also gave us one for Jackson. His has a green silk jacket and Kylie's has a pink one. So sweet and thoughtful. Needles to say, Jackson was thrilled. I just turned around to check on him and he is sound asleep with the two bears in his arms.

Our First Night and Day in Beijing

We had a nice walk outside our hotel yesterday afternoon after we settled into our hotel room. The street we are located on reminds us of 34th St. in NY, though more spread out and and not quite as crazy. A few blocks up from us is a big shopping mall. Saw a Starbucks sign...kind of nice to see that, but kind of sad, too. Beijing is very "westernized". People here seem so interestied in anything from our part of the world.



It was amazing to be the only "blond" people on the street. We could feel people looking at us out of curiosity. We have heard that people here are fascinated with children with blond hair and light eyes. I now understand why. Though we have seen a few western travelers, Jackson has been the only child we have seen that is not Chinese, and there are a lot of people in Beijing. Today we had many people coming up to us to take their picture with Jackson. It was so interesting to see their amazement. So glad we were warned about this. We had talked to Jackson about this before we left and told him how special this would be for him to be in pictures. He knows how to say "Hello" and "Thank You" in Chinese, too, and people seemed to be appreciative of that. Hoping we are good "ambassadors" for our country. At last count, we had about 12 pictures of him with other people here. Young teen age girls and parents with young children are mostly interested...so cute as the kids giggle and come to see him! Even exhausted at the end of the day, Jackson was such a good sport. So proud of him!

As for the food, we are figuring it all out. Last night's supper was a little tough for Jackson and me...ended up with mostly white rice. Paul is a little more adventurous than us. Breakfast, however, was wonderful!! They had a buffet of many things that Jackson and I could load up on, so we started the day feeling great. Lunch was at a wonderful little place just outside the zoo that was also quite good (a great tip from Karen's friend Maura). Tonight we will have dinner with our adoption group as they all just arrived from the airport.


Last night we also took a swim in the hotel pool. It was quite an experience trying to figure out the rules, but once we did, we had a fun time. We had to all wear bathing caps or we couldn't go in. That would be a great picture to take! Then we had to use a locker to leave all of our belongings in and put on their rubber sandals to walk to the pool. Once we figured it all out, we had a great little swim and a little time in the hot tub. Perfect way to end the day after our long flight.


We all crashed by 7:30 and got a decent night's sleep. We were up and ready to go by 7:00...pretty good for us Gavins!



After breakfast, we headed off to the Beijing Zoo and Aquarium. This was our big surprise for Jackson. We had told him today would be a special "Big Brother Day" and that we had a surprise for him. When we arrived and he realized where we were, he was so excited! He had been asking if Beijing had an Aquarium, so we were so glad that we had planned this extra day just for him.


The zoo was ok...not as nice as some American zoos, but it was wonderful to see the panda exhibits.

The Aquarium, however, was unbelievable. It was by far he best aquarium we have ever been to. It was located at the back end of the zoo so our ticket got us into both (Jackson did not even need a ticket...quite nice!). We arrived just as they were about to start the dolphin show, so it was great timing. They did a little sea lion act then a beautiful dolphin show. We all loved it. (On a side note, again we noticed that in this large audience,we were the only westerners. I really had no idea that it would be like that here. Fascinating.)

After the show, we walked around the aquarium for a few hours. It was beautifully done with amazing exhibits and creative ocean-themed art and sculptures. Paul and I could not get over how large and well thought out it was. Jackson, of course, loved it all. I think he smiled the entire time we were there. Now we know one of the reasons why our adoption took so long. It was so Jackson could come with us and be at an age that he could enjoy this beautiful place.


The shark exhibit was Jackson's favorite, of course. It was a huge tank with many different kinds of sharks. They also had these windows that "bubbled" into the tank, so if he leaned into the bubble, he could feel like he was in the tank. It just warms my heart to think about him inside that window with the look of complete contentment on his face.



After the aquarium and our stop for a late lunch, we took a taxi to Tianamen Square (check out this link for history info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989). We were all a little tired (Jackson fell asleep on Daddy's shoulder for a bit), but it was such an incredible place to see. So much happening there today, too, as they are getting it ready for the Olympics...24 days from now. They were building bleachers and scraping the entire cement floor (people were actually on their hands and knees with little scrapers!). The entire area (quite huge) was roped off and you could only get into the square by passing through police check points. They also had many military guards posted around the square. Wondering what Olympic festivities will take place there. They are obviously very concerened with safety precautions. Flaky Jake and Godzilla could help out if needed!! (Paul and Jackson were quite thrilled to find the Godzilla toy!)



The final highlight of the day came when two professional photographers approached us and asked if they could take Jackson's picture while he was on Paul's shoulders. We agreed and they handed him a flag to hold with the website http://www.sohu.com/ on it. It all happened so quickly, that afterwards we hoped we hadn't just agreed to something politically incorrect. They told us they were the website for the Olympics. We checked it out when we got back to our hotel and it seems ok, though all the writing is in Chinese. We will all have to keep checking to see if Jackson and Paul's photo is published on there. Wondering if they are "capturing" westerner's photos for some positive PR.

Let us know if you check it out and do spot them!

Well, time to head to dinner. What a great day in this fascinating country that we are really falling in love with. So glad we have this time to learn about Kylie's country and culture. Jackson keeps saying, "We have to bring Kylie to the Aquarium someday."

We are in Beijing!

We arrived in Beijing about 3 hours ago, but just got to our hotel. Busy airport and lots of traffic. Saw lots of signs for the Olympics from the highway, so you can see they are really gearing up for that.

The hotel is very nice. Everyone at the hotel speaks some English and all the writing here is in Chinese and English, so seems it will be easy to get around. You can check out our hotel at: http://www.wangfujinghotel.com/ (Just keep clicking "cancel" if it asks you to install the language thing.)

Our flight was long but ok. Jackson was a wonderful traveler and is playing in our room as I type this even though it is 4:00am EST! He slept a bit, so that helps. I think we will get outside a bit, then come back swim and have supper with an early bedtime tonight!

Met another couple on the plane who is with our adoption agency, so it was nice to chat with them a bit.

Well, just a short note to let you know we are great. Will add more tomorrow...and photos!!

We Are Off!!!!

And so, our adventure to China and Kylie begins! We are finally packed and about to head out the door. We will be traveling all day tomorrow and arriving in Beijing just after midnight, but it will be noontime there.

We will blog and add photos as often as we can. Be sure to check back!

Oh, the little white bunny is "Flaky Jake", a really good friend of Jackson's. You may remember him from Jackson's birthday cake picture and their battle with the sea monsters. Flaky will be joining us on this adventure, too!

Details on Our Flight to China

As many of you know, my nephew Jeff is a pilot with the Air Force. He loves to fly and when he is off duty, enjoys tracking our flights whenever we fly anywhere. We sent him our flight info for China and he has reviewed our routes. I found all of this so interesting, even the really technical stuff, so thought I would share this here:

Jeff wrote:

"A quick check of recent routes reveals that you will most likely be flying over western Quebec, east of Baffin Bay, over the Polar icecap, near the north pole and down over central or eastern Russia and possibly through central or western Mongolia depending. The return routing looks almost the same. On the day of your travel, I will look up the route and let you know what you're doing if interested.

I took some pictures of Greenland on my last trip home. So you should take some pictures if you can of the pole and Russia. Most, if not all, of your trip should be during daylight hours.

Of interesting note is the challenge of keeping fuel from freezing during flight over the poles. The ambient temperature is about NEGATIVE 70F. The airplane will usually feel something around the -35 to -40 celsius due to skin friction, but polar temperatures will be even lower than that. Most nonpolar routings are not fuel temperature critical so it's usually just left to the book number temperature with a safety factor padded for the crew to avoid freezing the fuel. Since the polar routes are so cold, airlines have programs in place to go beyond the temperature of the fuel's book numbers.

A sample of your fuel will be analyzed at a fuel lab after you guys takeoff. The laboratory will message your crew with the actual freezing temperature of your fuel. During the flight the crew will manage fuel temperature with altitude and airspeed to keep it from freezing.

I'll be watching you guys on your flight. Incidentally, the 777 is my favorite airliner. I hope that they are still flying if I ever get an airline job and am senior enough to fly them.

Fly fast, fly safe."

Thank you, Jeff, for all this info and for watching over us as we head out on Wednesday morning!