Day by day

A few pictures from the past two months...

Lilia practicing her stretches.


Hanging out.


Ryan's pre-school graduation.


Lilia making her snorty face.


Cousin Griffin came up for a visit (along with the rest of his family). We must've really tired Lilia out because she almost never sleeps in her crib during the day, much less with the distraction of another baby.

Sibling love.

Hello "regular" life, so long regular blogging...

From the delay between posts, you've probablly guessed that real life has taken over. The combination of jet lag and an ear infection left us pretty exhausted for a few days. Lilia's feeling much better now and is in constant motion, exploring her new surroundings. Ryan's very proud to be a big brother and assured his classmates and teacher that although "she looks like a boy now, we just have to give it time and her hair will grow out."

As you can see below, we're introducing Lilia to a high fiber diet. (You should see the full diapers it produces.)



Lilia's figured out a way to bathe herself anytime, anyplace.


With the super sunny weather we've been enjoying, we let Lilia use her new playpen while Ryan mowed the lawn with a pair of scissors and a grocery bag. We're a high tech family.

Since many of you will be meeting Lilia in the coming weeks, and since the ins and outs of diaper changes and feeding times don't make for compelling reading, we'll only be using the blog to post the occasional updates. Thank you all for joining us on our journey to add this wonderful little girl to our family. With your emails and messages, we never felt that far away.

Love,

Jeanne, James, Ryan and Lilia

Sleep deprived in Seattle

We're home! The journey was a long one, about twenty hours from the time we left our hotel until we entered our home in Seattle at 10am Saturday. We barely got any sleep on the plane rides, except for Lilia who got a couple of hours. So the first order of business was to pass out. Thank goodness, James' sister Grace picked us up. Not even James was in a condition to drive.

When we woke up around 5pm, Lilia was back into quiet clingy mode, but she was interested in crawling around her new home, as long as one of us was within hugging distance. She LOVED her bath though. Ryan has plenty of bath toys. We forced ourselves to bed at midnight.

Now, it's 4:30am Sunday. Ryan, Lilia and I couldn't sleep. Already, Lilia's broad smile is back. She'll get to meet grandma and grandpa Tjoa today, and maybe a few other folks, if she's up for it.

Before I forget, Lilia's now a US citizen! We were sworn in at the consulate on Friday in a massive group of 56 adoptees. But the kids didn't become citizens until reaching US soil. "Soil" became the operative word for us, as when we arrived in Seattle, ready for the Kodak moment of turning in a sealed brown envelope to immigration, Lilia had a complete diaper blowout. While we were changing her, she tested her bladder on US territory. Let's just say that turning the paperwork in was anticlimatic.

Okay, Miss USA wants to play now, so I'll post more later when my photographer gives me some new material to work with...

And now a word from our sponsor...

Sunshine

It’s a sunny morning in Guangzhou. I’m reminded of that old “hello muddah, hello faddah” song where the kid is writing from summer camp, begging to go home, until the end of the song when it stops raining and he tells them to disregard his letter. Now that the rain’s stopped here, we’re smiling again, engaged in our favorite pastimes. James and Lilia are shopping for electronics (okay, that may not be Lilia’s favorite pastime yet, but she gets to ride in the carrier). Ryan and David are playing at the park (Ryan’s plan was to hop on stones while David practices his trumpet). And I’m sitting outside a coffee shop on a warm, peaceful morning, watching people stroll under the canopied central path of Shamian Island. Life is good.

There’s an elementary school a few doors down. Every morning hundreds of kids, wearing white shirts and royal purple shorts or sweat pants, fill the outside square to go through their calisthenics. Right now, they’re running around in circles, yelling and laughing. All the open spaces on the island are decorated with beautiful bronze statues and well-used by the residents. At lunchtime, the park along the Pearl River is crowded with adults grouped in circles playing hackey-sack or practicing tai chi. At one end of the park, couples waltz to music blaring from a boombox. The vibrancy of daily life that we’ve seen in every place we’ve visited on this trip is a paradox to the stringency of government mandates such as the one-child policy.

Getting back to the true topic of this blog, I’m pretty sure at least one of Lilia's parents was an acrobat, or should’ve been. She's very petite, but incredibly physical. She won’t sit still in a lap for long, and if we aren’t keeping her amused, she’ll try to backflip out of our grasp. Everything is a huge bouncy, rolling, climbing game. She readily rewards us with huge smiles and laughs. Although she spent a year in an orphanage, I think she got a decent amount of attention, stimulation and love. She’s such a happy, inquisitive, playful baby. For that, we are so thankful.

p.s. If you click on the photo with the preschoolers wearing red, you can see what their teachers' tee shirts say.

A Lotta Rain, A Little Homesick

It's Tuesday in China, a week since we got our sweetie. She's such a sunny, funny addition to our family that it's already difficult to imagine our life before her.

The past couple of days have been very rainy. We're a bit weary of being couped up in the hotel room. Every time we venture out though, we get soaking wet. Our umbrellas (and hair care products) aren't much of a match for the torrential rain. It'll be comforting to get back to our gentle Seattle soggy rain.

Before the onslaught, we got in a visit to Yuntai Garden. It looked like the backdrop for Teletubbies, but was pretty to stroll through. Below's a picture of our travel group. Going left to right are the Larson family (Todd, Wendi and their daughter Alanna), the Graubergers (Kevin, Tonya and their daughter Natalee -- Ryan's been desperately waiting for the rain to let up so he and Kevin can go play hackey-sack in the park), us, and David. Their babies came from the same orphanage as Lilia, so the girls are all "sisters" in a sense.



Lilia is happiest in her carrier, on the move.



Ryan is happiest getting undressed. With the humidity here, it would feel SOOOO good to emulate him.

Yesterday was Lilia's medical exam. The clinic was crowded with Chinese patients of all ages and dozens of babies being adopted. Basically, the babies are run through three stations like an assembly line, 1: Weigh in/temperature, 2: A quick exam of the body, 3: A ENT check. Each station took about two minutes. Lilia went ballistic. They said she weighs 17.7 lbs and is 71.5 cm long. Another appointment checked off our list. Next steps are the US consulate on Thursday and then the US visa/swearing in on Friday. Saturday, we return home!

Out and About

We haven't had any appointments for the past few days, so we've been relaxing and seeing a little of Guangzhou. Our guide took us through an open market yesterday. Lots of herbal and traditional remedies. Got rheumatism? Try some snake or scorpion wine. Virility issues? You'll need some dried sea horses.

The evening before, we strolled along the Pearl River. See below. It had rained heavily earlier, so we were able to catch a glimpse of blue sky before it clouded over and rained some more. James and I took turns piggy-backing Ryan as we jogged forty minutes back to the hotel. We were sticky head to toe by the time we returned. While the humidity is oppressive at times, for the most part it's an enjoyable change from the cool crisp weather back home. I love being able to walk around in the evening in short sleeves.


As for Lilia, she continues to surprise us. Just when we think we've got a handle on her personality, she shows us a new facet. Seen less often is the quiet, snuggly girl. In her place is a silly jester who doesn't seem to tire of bouncing and giggling. The orphanage staff had told us that she loves to laugh and doesn't like strangers. Now that we aren't strangers, she's turned into a giggle-monster who has us laughing at her antics. She and Ryan were in such hysterics for so long last night that I finally had to send him to David's room for a bit so she could get to sleep.