We are HOME!

We've been home about a week and a half and I haven't had a chance yet to post pictures from the rest of our trip.  We are still trying to adjust and the biggest issue has been SLEEP! Audrey is still trying to adjust to the 14 hour time difference, and we are daily trying to guess when we should wake her, when to put her down for a nap, how long to let her nap, and when to put her to bed at night so that she falls into a pattern.  It seems like no matter what we do, she likes to be wide awake and happy, talking in her bed and playing right in the middle of the night, then fall back to sleep towards morning.  I know it will just take a little more time to get adjusted.

So, to recap the rest of our trip, we left the hotel about 5:45 am Friday the 11th, and headed to the Guangzhou airport.  We had a great flight to Beijing, Audrey played for a while...

Then she fell fast asleep for the rest of that flight....

Then we changed planes in Beijing and we were off to San Francisco.  Even though it was early afternoon when we left, before too long we were in complete darkness outside, and they turned off all the lights on the plane.  Audrey didn't sleep very much, but she was quiet in her seat playing.  It helped that everything was quiet and lights were turned off.  Aaron & I took turns dozing while keeping an eye on her in the seat between us.  The flight really wasn't too bad at all.  We even gained an hour because of tailwind!  I think it was around a 10 hour flight.  We were thankful that those 2 flights had no delays, despite the heavy smog we had been hearing about in Beijing.

Almost there!  Beautiful view of the Golden Gate Bridge...

We landed in San Francisco, went thru the long customs line, turned in Audrey's brown sealed envelope to an immigration officer, and then were so excited to be met by my sister Janet, brother-in-law Jim, and niece Lindsey!!!

Audrey didn't really mind her first time ever in a car seat!

 

We stopped by California Maritime Academy to see my nephew Austin between classes and take a quick look at the ship he lives on.  Pretty cool!

Then Audrey got her first In-N-Out fries for lunch!

Mmmm, yum!

We arrived in Sacramento and were so happy to take a shower and spend the rest of the night relaxing with family!  We had a wonderful dinner at the house, celebrating my niece & nephew's birthdays.  Audrey was so happy playing with some new toys and meeting her new cousins...

Then the next morning we were off to the airport for our flight home.  My sister, niece Brooke and her 3 kids flew to St. Louis with us!  

 It was another long day of travel!  Got to the airport to find out our flight thru Chicago was cancelled last minute due to fog.  We were re-routed to a later flight thru Denver.  Then snow in Denver made our 2nd flight late because of de-icing the plane.  Glad we had family with us and more new cousins to keep us entertained!

Audrey did not do near as good on these flights as she did on the China flights.  She was very antsy, having a hard time getting comfortable and trying to wiggle out of our arms.  She did quite a bit of crying on both flights, I think her ears were bothering her.  We were so ready to land!  The flight ended up not getting to St. Louis till around 10:30 pm.  We had friends and family at the airport to meet us!

Meeting her brother Grant...

her brother Luke...

and her sister Olivia...

First family picture...

She was very quiet and still with all the new people around her, but once we got in the van, she was quick to warm up to the kids and give them some smiles!

We have really been enjoying our time getting to know her better.  The kids can't get enough of her and are all constantly wanting to do everything for her and be with her at all times.  It has been nice for them to be on Christmas break right away to spend more time together.  They have been teaching her lots of new things.  She waves, says hi, blows kisses, nods her head, claps, and smiles and laughs at them frequently.  We can't even hardly remember what it was like to have that shy, quiet, still girl we first met.  She is not only walking around the house but running!  It's been so fun each day seeing what she is going to learn!

Last Day in Guangzhou!

Today was our last day in China!  We've had a wonderful trip but it seems like we've been here forever!  We are definitely missing home!  The weather here on our last day was the best we've had the whole 2 weeks!  Rain finally gone, sunny & probably in the 70's.  We had our last breakfast buffet in the hotel.  Although the food has been awesome, we are ready to get back to our "normal".  We did some packing and cleaning up, then spent some time in the outdoor play area at the hotel, where there were several other adoptive families that we have talked with throughout the week.  We have met some really great families!  Since it was such a nice day out we decided to explore a little for lunch.  Liz - we got dumplings at your "green" restaurant and they were delicious!

We also decided to check out a pizza place we had heard other families talk about. This was probably Audrey's first pizza...

It was so nice out we were able to eat outside. We got a kick out of their delivery vehicles...

It is amazing how many people live in this city! There are apartment buildings everywhere, and everyone has their laundry hanging out to dry...

We also got to hang out this evening with another family here that we've met.  It's been fun sharing our stories and experiences and getting to know some of these families.

Tomorrow we get picked up by Richard at 5:45 am, then off to the airport! Our first flight goes to Beijing, then to San Francisco where we have our first "homecoming" with my sister & her family! We are so excited to be there! Please pray for smooth and on-time flights and a sleepy and well-behaved little 2-yr old!

Two Days Left!

We're nearing the end of our trip.  I don't have a whole lot to report today.  It was pouring down raining all day.  It was good to be able to sleep in a little and just have some down time.  Audrey enjoyed just getting to play and not have to go anywhere.  We stayed in the hotel for much of the day, then this evening our guide picked up Audrey's Visa, and we are thankful that everything was ok with that.  She then took us to the store to buy some diapers, wipes & formula to last us till we got home.  That trip ended up taking a good 2 hours, with a long taxi ride back in the rain & traffic.  I'll be glad to be back home where a simple trip to the store is not such an ordeal.  Tomorrow we'll be packing up!  We're getting excited!

Consulate & Safari Park

Today was a very full day. We started out by picking up Audrey's TB result at the healthcare clinic, then walking to the U.S. Consulate for our appointment. There were no cameras allowed, so I don't have any pictures of it, but we had to take an oath & do an adoption interview, then they took Audrey's passport along with other papers to be able to issue her Visa. This is the last step in the process! Her Visa should be ready for pickup late tomorrow. When we land in San Francisco & go thru Customs she will become a U.S. citizen! Yay!

Straight from the Consulate, our driver took us to Safari Park & we spent the day there with another family. This place was AMAZING! By far, the neatest zoo experience we've ever had! I took hundreds of pictures but I will try to narrow it down to a few of the highlights. We started out by taking a tram ride thru areas where these animals were...

These kangaroos looked so funny just relaxing...

There was nothing separating us from these camels & giraffes & zebras except for the workers holding sticks to control them if they needed to! They could come right up to the tram!

Audrey seemed to enjoy it. She did a lot of pointing to the animals...

Then we got to walk around the zoo part. There were so many of each type of animal & they were all so active & close-up to us!

We got to feed the giraffes!  He quickly yanked this branch out of Audrey's hands!

This park has one of the largest collections of white tigers in the world & Aaron got to throw out raw meat to them!

And there were baby tigers! So cute!

And then there were a ton of newborn tigers in incubators!

Beautiful birds...

There was nothing separating us from these orangutans. They were just playing above our heads!

And Koala Bears!

An amazing elephant show...

Lots of panda bears...

And the only set of panda triplets in the world, born just last year! These 3 were so cute & funny wrestling & playing together...

Audrey was doing a lot more talking today and even saying "ma ma" and "da da"! (although not sure if it was always directed at us or just random babbling!)

We had a very fun and full day! The next 2 days we don't have anything specific planned. Probably hanging close around the hotel & then packing up to come home!