This pretty much sums up my life.....

The big girls are preparing for the ACT, while Betsy is preparing for The Itsy Bitsy Spider.....





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Baby proofing a bookshelf?

Anyone have any ideas on how to baby proof these shelves that doesn't involve an old beach towel and some duct tape that keeps falling off?





This photo was from Andrew's birthday.



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Look at what she can do!

So, now I know why she has been eating and sleeping non-stop!

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Who needs the gym???

So, I used to struggle doing twenty reps with a five pound weight. Well, now I can do at least a hundred reps with a seventeen pound weight! She wants up. She wants down. She wants up. She wants down. You get the picture! And who needs squats? Certainly not me anymore....

But how could you resist this cute little face? Not me that's for sure!



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We had our appointment at Children's

And she seems to be doing very well health-wise. She actually gained about two pounds since she was weighed at the clinic in Guangzhou a little over a week ago! Yeah! We are waiting for test results now. We should know this week.


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This is what we all feel like

That's Emmie asleep on the floor. We are so exhausted from this darn jet-lag that it's almost impossible to stay awake sometimes.


Sorry, I thought at this posted last week! I don't know what happened.....
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Let's revisit car seats...

Let me tell you a little something about car seats. They've changed. A. Lot. For one thing, they are not even called car seats. They are now called child safety seats... And it takes at least a degree in engineering to install one. Thank goodness my husband is so technically minded. It only took him 1 1/2 hours to figure out how to install it. I was a great help to him - I held the flash light..... This thing is latched to my car in places I didn't even know existed. And let me tell you, this seat ain't going nowhere! In the good old' days, you threw the seat into the car, put the kid in, put the seatbelt over the both of them, and you were good to go!
All of this leads us to our next huge purchase - another child safety seat for Ray's car. Here we go again!




You know, these seats are going to have to go with the cars when we trade them in. You couldn't pay me enough to try to figure out how to uninstall them. They are now latched, hooked, and strapped to just about everything in the car. Aside from cutting all the straps, which would render them useless, they are there to stay.



O.K. Off my soapbox. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming!
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All dressed up and nowhere to go...

We actually got everyone up and ready for church -a miracle in itself! Ray went out to warm up the car and discovered that my car wouldn't start. No problem, we'll just take Ray's car. Big surprise - his car wouldn't start either! What are the odds That BOTH of our cars would be dead at the same time? After a visit from our new best friend, Max, we were good to go.






Ray headed out to purchase a new battery, and I took Betsy and Emmie out for a ride, just to make sure that it would start again. Betsy did well for her first ride in her newly installed carseat.

Betsy really seems to be doing well. She plays on the floor right next to me and seems happy. The big girls just dote on her. MeiMei is loving being a big sister!



She is just so stinking' cute! You just want to eat her up!


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12 loads of laundry later...

And 6 empty suitcases! Only two more suitcases left. I'm exhausted! Unfortunately, so is everyone else. Jet lag is horrible! Ray says that he gives himself a day for every hour difference. So that means, let's see... Multiply by 12, carry the 7, find the reciprocal.... I think that it means that we'll be tired for a while.

We are trying to get to church tomorrow, so we realized that we have to install the carseat. I think they make it confusing on purpose!





I don't think Betsy is very happy about the carseat...


Now we just have to get up tomorrow. I hope we can do it! So far the earliest we've been able to get up has been around 11.



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We start back to school on Monday....

And I am so not ready!  I'm very glad that several years ago I was part of a Pre-School Bag Activity Swap through my homeschool group.  These are activities that toddlers can do that you store in a zip-lock baggie.  Hopefully, I'll be able to find some that Betsy can do while I work with the older girls. 

Here is an interesting look at homeschooling:


You know what they say: "He who dies with the most books wins....."

We are home!

And does it ever feel good! Andrew and Stephanie were here to welcome us. Thankfully, they shopped for us so our fridge is well stocked and we have lots of fresh cut up veggies to snack on.


Betsy is getting used to her new home. She is also getting used to eating real food. All this child has had is formula mixed with rice cereal. Since she's already 17 months old tomorrow, she needs to get some better nutrition. There she is eating peas. She loved them, just like her grandpa!

I actually made dinner tonight, in spite of jet lag something fierce. And I'm finishing up my third load of laundry. When that is done, I'm crashing! Hopefully, we can all get some sleep tonight. Last night it was party in our bed! We had Betsy and MeiMei awake for several hours...



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Cathay Pacific Club

My wonderful husband got us into the Cathay Pacific Club to wait for our plane. Much better than where we originally had to wait for the last two hours.








We are happy..... Only 3 more hours to go until we get on our plane and then it's all downhill from there.


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At the airport in Shanghai

We only have 6 more hours to wait here for our flight, but who's counting......









Are we having fun yet?

Only 20 more hours until we land in the good old' USA. Betsy Anne did pretty well on the first leg of our journey. For some reason, we were all over the plane, and I ended up with MeiMei and Betsy. Luckily, the guy who had to sit with us was very kind and didn't seem to mind very much that he was being constantly whacked in the head by a fussy infant!

Cannot wait to set foot in our house!


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Time to go home!

We have had our Consulate appointment where we received our child's visa page in their passport. We did the Pearl River cruise, and we have had our group picture.


Hopefully, this afternoon we will be able to shop with Ann from Red Thread again. The girls would like to try their hand at bargaining. If Ann has time, she will met us here at the hotel along with another family to take us to a wholesale market for shoes and clothes.

Here are some random pictures that I'm going to include just because I'm so thankful that I can!









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Pearl River Dragon Boat

For some reason, I am unable to post pictures to the blog. Actually, I wasn't able to post anything to the blog last night, but we've figured out how to sneak into blogger another way.. WooHoo! Editing to add that after several FaceTime sessions with our brilliant son, we are back to our regular scheduled programming!! Finally - some pictures!


We were able to have a ride on an authentic wooden dragon boat this evening with our group. It was really fun. But was the best of all was the company of our group. This group of adoptive families is the best. We have made so many friends on this trip. We will miss so many of them when we head home. I wish that we all lived close to each other so that we can see all of these children grow up with their new families!






We had a wonderful dinner:



It tasted sort of the same, maybe.....



Saw some great sights. Lots of lit up buildings and bridges....






Betsy Anne was not having fun. She really wants to walk all the time now. The only problem is that she can't walk yet! Sshhh... Don't tell her!



I would like to have this beautiful carved table for our deck at home. Think I can fit in my carry- on???

Baby shoes

Hello, my name is Laura and I have a problem with baby shoes.

There. I said it. I'll be the first to admit that I am a sucker when it comes to baby shoes. When Andrew was a baby, he was the best shod toddler! Tina and Em were the same. Then, Ray got into the game with MeiMei while we were in her province. We were taken to the local Wal-Mart and he went nuts buying her shoes in graduating sizes. She is still wearing shoes from that shopping expedition! So, today I decided to follow tradition:



Ten pair of shoes! She'll be set for a few years! Most of them are squeaky shoes. Here in China, a lot of toddlers wear little shoes that squeak when they walk so that you always know where they are.

Tomorrow is our exit meeting and Consulate appointment. There we will have the swearing in ceremony with Betsy Anne. We will get her exit visa on Wednesday and head home on Thursday. Can't wait to get home!




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Safari Park

While I was buying all the shoes in China, Ray and the girls went with our big group to the Safari Park. It is a huge zoo with all kind of animals up real close.






They saw pandas!



Giraffes!






And MeiMei and Emmie got to ride on a baby elephant!





Ray was feeling a bit owlish....

We wanted to go to Tekilas

So, our plan was to go Tekilas restaurant over by the Garden Hotel. We had the concierge at the China Marriott write out the address, and then we proceeded to catch two taxis for Tekilas. Well, let's just say that we never got there.... Our friend, Chantal and her new daughter rode with me and MeiMei, while Ray and the big girls rode in the second taxi. Our taxi got there first and guess what? No Tekilas... And no Ray! We waited for several endlessly long minutes, and finally we saw their taxi whizzing down the street past us. We started running after them, and finally they stopped. But we were still not at Tekilas... We went upstairs to where we thought the place was, but guess what? Still no Tekilas.... We ended eating at some Latin Steak buffet. The girls loved it. On the way back to the hotel, guess what??? Tekilas was only a block away! Little did we know....












This is NOT Tekilas.....




I realized that there aren't many pictures of Emmie, so here you go.




Isn't she sweet? She is becoming such a little stinker! She is just adorable!
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We went shopping with Ann @ Red Thread!

This morning, two other moms and I went out into Guangzhou with Ann from The Red Thread - an online company that will send gifts to your child before you come to China to adopt and personal shopper. Boy, did we have fun! She is such a tiny little thing, but can she move! We stopped at the pearl market, jade market, quilt store, food store, and toy market. I think that's it, although we were moving so fast, I don't remember! I didn't get a silk filled comforter in Beijing at the silk factory, and I've been regretting it ever since. Now I'm thankful that I didn't, because Ann was able to find me one that was less than half of what I'd have paid in Beijing!




We were able to see the "real" China today. It was great!












These people were stringing the pearl necklaces that I got for all the girls.








This is literally a vat of jade bangles....








We were even treated to a tea ceremony. I love jasmine tea! I bought some green tea covered pumpkin seeds. Yummy! All in all, a very fun day! So thankful that we were able to do this. Ann is fabulous!
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