Pictures since we have been home

We are home!!!

We made it home late Friday night. We were supposed to take the train to Hong Kong right after we got our visa, spend the night, spend the next day touring Hong Kong, and then take a late night flight home. We heard there was a tsunami heading toward Hong Kong, so Wednesday night I stayed up for hours emailing back and forth with our travel agent getting our flights changed. We were able to change them to leaving for home late Thursday night. It was raining the day we left, but Ray and I ran out to the island one last time for a few gifts. We checked out and then said goodbye to a lot of the people from our travel group. We were really lucky to have so many nice people to go through such an amazing journey with. Several families headed out to get our children's visas and then got on the train to Hong Kong. I really enjoyed the train ride. Finally, there was nothing left to do but relax for a couple of hours and enjoy the ride. We were able to see Hong Kong as we got closer to the city, which was nice. Getting on and off the train was CRAZY! Everyone races to get on and get all of their luggage on as soon as they can. Meaning all at once. It was crazy, fast, furious, and pretty disorganized. Ray, Zhao Lei and I said goodbye to our friends and took a taxi to the airport. We really enjoyed the ride and I was sorry we weren't able to spend the next day touring Hong Kong. It looked really nice and I would have loved to see it. We were really homesick, sick of being tourists, and Zhao Lei had begun acting up the last few days whenever we were around other people. It was time to go home.
We had a pretty easy flight. It was thirteen hours, but it didn't seem bad. Maybe because we knew we were at the end of the trip. It took a really long time to go through customs. They had added a step since I got home with Sasha. But Zhao Lei was great and handled the wait very well. When we finally walked out my sister, Jenny, and my kids, Colton, Brayden, Brookelyn and Sasha were all waiting for us! It was great! Brookelyn ran up and hugged Zhao Lei, who was fine about it, and then all three girls held hands as we walked to the car. When we got home, the kids raced around showing Zhao Lei everything in the house. All three girls slept on the bunkbed, which was cute.
The next day Zhao Lei and I dropped the little kids off at school. They went in late since it had been such a late night. I thought it would be nice for Zhao Lei to have a few hours without the girls being all over her. That afternoon afer we picked up the kids, we headed up to Brayden's soccer practice and the girls played at the park. It was really cute watching them, they had so much fun together. It was really sweet how well they got along. Brookleyn and Sasha each had their feelings hurt if Zhao Lei paid more attention to the other one for more than a minute, but otherwise it was great. We went home and had a fun night. There doesn't seem to be a problem with communication with the kids.

Pictures from last few days in China

American Consulate Appointment Day!

We had our appointment at the American Consulate today. We brought in our paperwork and waited in a room with a lot of other adoptive parents. We took an oath all together and then were called up one at a time to turn in our paperwork. It was a little anticlimactic, but it is done. We are her parents and she will be a U.S. citizen when we land in Los Angelos on Friday.
I dragged Ray and Zhao Lei to a book store with me today. Why didn't I go alone? What was I thinking? Neither of them wanted to go anywhere, but they came. I had a list of books I wanted to get and was determined. I had read on several blogs of people who had adopted older children from China that they wished they had bought more books. I was trying to take advantage of their advice to get as many as you could. We bought several fairy tale books with CDs that read the story aloud for 18 yuan each, many classics (like Pocahantas and The Secret Garden) with English on one page and Mandarin on the opposite page for 5.9 yuan each, several comic books and twelve new videos. We scored.

Zoo Day

We went to the zoo today and enjoyed it. Kind of. It is a really nice zoo and the exhibits are big and nice. We go to the San Diego Zoo and it was just as nice. I think it cost 290 yuan for adults and 90 yuan for children. The only problem was that it was about 95 degrees and really humid. We walked around a lot and were struggling to enjoy ourselves by the end. We went with three other families and I think we all felt the same way. I know I would have gladly paid an exit fee by the end to be able to leave and sit anywhere that was airconditioned. It was fun to take the train ride, which has a breeze when it is moving and is great in that you get close to several of the animals. I am not sure how long we were on the train, at least twenty or thirty minutes, and we saw a lot of animals in nice exhibits. It was also nice to see the pandas up close, I think we were about five feet away from a couple of them. The giraffes ate leaves from branches we held for them, which was fun. I would say that if you have a good zoo near where you live, have other things you want to do, or if it is hot and humid here then you could skip this zoo. Some people love it, just my opinion. One good thing is that the snacks at the zoo are not expensive. I bought a cold soda and an ice cream and it was about $3.00. Ray and Zhoa Lei each bought some kind of meat on a stick (four altogether) and it cost about $3.00 as well.
It was also hard because Zhao Lei spent most of the time away from us. She didn't sit with us on the bus or walk around with us while at the zoo. That was okay since she usually spends time with the other kids or with Michael, so she can talk with him. But today, she wasn't ignored us several times when we asked her to do something like sit down while on the bus or not putting her hands on the little children's faces. She either ignored us or said no to us. It was irritating to Ray and I. We understand that some of her behavior is typical nine year old behavior. We also understand that she hasn't gotten enough sleep, has had several major life changes in the last two weeks, is living out of a suitcase...all valid reasons to be cranky and irritable. So we give her a break most of the time and let her get away with it. It makes us feel helpless since we feel like we aren't parenting her well. Parenting a nine year old child we are only just getting to know is not for the faint of heart. And it is particularly hard since we are in a new country, aren't sleeping well, are living out of suitcases, miss our kids at home, and were very hot and a little cranky. We know that in a few days we will be home and on the road to learning how to live together. We just need to make it through a few more days.
We went to McDonald's before we went back to our hotel rooms. I usually don't want to eat there, but I was really hungry and Ray wanted to eat and then hang out in our room. I couldn't get Ray or Zhao Lei to go anyplace afer we got back. I wanted to go anywhere, just out of the room. Ray did call to find out if there was a book store near by so we could get some Harry Potter books and more movies. It was already closed by the time we thought of it. So we have been in he room all evening. It is almost 10:00 pm now and Ray and Zhao Lei are sleeping. She and I looked at her Mandarin/English books and both tried to learn new words. We would run the pen over the English, it would say it aloud and she would repeat it. Then it was my turn to do it in Mandarin. Both of us were having fun when the batteries ran out. Oh well. We had another tea party-Ray, Zhao Lei, myself and her two stuffed animals. It was fun. I helped Zhao Lei take a bath and washed her hair too.
We have our American Consulate appointment tomorrow at 10:00 am! Michael told us today that Zhao Lei's passport arrived at the hotel while we were at the zoo so we can proceed as planned. We are barely holding on. There are plenty of things to do at the hotel, on the island, and in the city, but I have to drag Ray and Zhao Lei out of the hotel to do them. We plan on doing a little shopping tomorrow after we are finished with the appointment. We are in a really nice hotel and we need to take advantage of all of the things to do here too...

Tea Party

After we got back from the jewelry mall our guide had us quickly fill out some paperwork for the visa and I headed back to our room. As soon as I walked in Zhao Lei brought me over to show me her new suitcase. She and Baba had gone out and bought it at a store right next to our hotel. Actually it is right behind the McDon*lds that is right next to our hotel. It is a big suitcase and pretty nice. Ray said he paid 250 yuan for it ($40). Zhau Lei wanted she and I to pack up her clothes right then. We folded and packed up all of her clothes, even though we aren't leaving for a few days.
I lost track of time last night and hadn't realized that it was 11:00 pm before I turned off the lights and had Zhao Lei go to bed. Bad mommy. She was exhausted when we woke her up today. She didn't want to get up or go downstairs to eat breakfast. We couldn't explain that we were all going to see a temple, so we insisted that we were hungry and we all had to go eat. She didn't mope once we were down there, but she didn't smile at all. She sat in front of the bus with Michael and seemed to have fun. She got bored at the temple and was very tired of any shopping we did. She played with the lttle kids a lot at the temple and at lunch. She really likes little children. After lunch she was clearly very tired, so it was perfect that she and Ray stayed home from the jewelry mall.
I kind of forced Zhao Lei and Ray out of the room and to the island. I had seen a couple of things that I wanted and I just wanted to get them and cross it off my list mentally. Neither of them wanted to go. They weren't hungry and they just wanted to stay in the room. I knew Zhao Lei should get out of the room for a little while, so decided to bring her to the playground behind Lucy's. I picked up a Happy Meal for $3 for myself and we took a taxi over. It turned out that there were no lights on at the playground so we all went to the store by the back entrance of the White Swan Hotel. I shopped for the things I wanted and then we all left. We had bought Zhao Lei a tea set, so when we got back she and I cleaned it out in the sink. She is very neat and even cleans her plate and silverware before we eat when we go out. Not a compulsive thing, but clearly there has been a reason to take care of things and keep them clean. I suggested we have a tea party with her big pink bear and little stuffed octopus thing. She thought it was funny, so we made tea and she served myself, Ray, the bear, the octopus and herself tea. She then served us another cup with a cookie and then another with a cookie and a cute piece of candy we had bought earlier. Ray and I made a point to be silly and have fun and we know she enjoyed it. We finally had to stop so she could take a bath, watch a movie and go to sleep. It was a good night for all of us.

Pearl Shopping

Ray and Zhao Lei stayed at the hotel and I went with the group to shop for pearls. Our guide recommended one of the stores and we enjoyed choosing our pearls and the clasps and then watching them re-strand them into necklaces. After mine were finished I walked around the mall. I did choose a jade pendant that I had wanted and seen many women here wearing and a couple of little ornament type things. I couldn't believe how many types of pearls there were and how many of them there were in the store. Many of the stores sell wholesale to buyers. We bought our pearls at a store on the basement level called Mao Sheng Jewelers. The manager's name is Kerry and she speaks English well. They gave me about 9% of a discount when I asked for it. Also, they take credit cards. If you go out of the store and take a right and go down until the corner, that is where I bought the jade pendant. If you go across the walkway, you have gone too far. I think it is owned by an older man and woman. My pendant had a tag that said it ws 300 yuan ($48)and I asked for a better price. They held it up to the light to check it's quality and then said 200 yuan ($32)