Meeting family

Meeting her "yeah yeah & Low Low" Chinese pronunciation for paw paw and maw maw. She loved them!

Arrival in Huntsville!!!

We had several people to greet us there! Wayne's Brother-James and Anna Hairell, His Cousin Doris Jean, My parents and also my neice Hannah. We were so excited to be home - she even had gifts!! She loves this "American Girl Bitty Baby" doll from her cousins Doris Jean & Larry Morphew, Jennifer and Beth!! And her Low Low (maw maw) brought her one of her favorites~A banana!!

Atlanta Airport

Another lay-over in Atlanta. She really did better than we both expected on this trip. She watched some of "lady and the tramp" on our laptop while we waited.

Plane ride to Atlanta

The 4 hour plane ride to Atlanta we let her watch Dora on my ipod. She loved it!! Later, she slept a little.

In LA airport

In LA we found our gate number and had several hours to wait. She played for a while, we were all so exhausted and took a short nap.

From China to LA

The long plane ride from China to LA (about 12 hours). We just did our best to keep her occupied. She had her ups and downs. She wanted me to stand and hold her or walk the isles with her but I can't obviously do it for 12 hours so she cried and cried when we sat down. Everyone else on the plane probably wished I would stand and hold her too, because they were all staring. I kept asking Wayne "so how much longer do we have?" We finally made it but it was rough!!

Backing up to the day we left China!

Our last breakfast at the Swan Hotel! We will be leaving later tonight!

We made it home safely!!

It was a long long 26 hours!!! From the time we left until the time we arrived in Huntsville AL was about 26 hours. Then an hour's drive home from there. We were all exhausted! None of us got very much sleep (I only got about 2 hours of broken sleep). One of our luggage bags did not make it to Huntsville. It was sent to Columbus GA. That is the bag that has all of my chargers and cords in it - to my camera, ipod, phone, etc. So I can't post pictures until we get it back. We should get it back sometime today (I hope). They are going to deliver it to our front door! We are so glad we don't have to make a trip back to the airport to get it.

We leave today!!!

We are packing today to leave China!!! We are so ready to get home. It is Friday morning at 10:30 am. We will fly out at 9:00pm tonight and will arrive in LA at 6:50pm tonight before we even left China (due to the time change). We finally get back to Huntsville at 10:00am Saturday. Please pray for our safe travels!!

Eating Lunch!

Rebecca and Lilly

Lunch with our Guangzhou guide Rebecca (in the white) and our Adoption facilitator Lily (who lives in Hong Kong). Lily took care of all of the details of our trip! This is the first time we were able to meet up with her. We were able to meet her when she visited Alabama 2 or 3 years ago.

Shopping

Another shopping adventure!! The first time she actually sat in the cart. She seemed to like it!

Thursday Oct 21st

She is taking her little baby doll to the potty! Just as I take her!

Waiting on our dinner

Playing with my I-Pod while we were waiting on our dinner to come!

Feeding her baby doll

Feeding her baby doll chips. She would take a bite and give the baby a bite. So cute. She just talked up a storm to the baby doll-- in Chinese of course.

PBJ

Back at the hotel and time for a quick lunch before a nap. She loves peanut butter and jelly!

Big day at the Zoo

We had a great time at the Zoo. We did not stay very long but it was long enough! We were all tired. All of the children in our group fell asleep but Kinsley.

Our Hotel from the water.

Cruise

The cruise had beautiful views of all of the city. It was so colorful!! The pic's don't do it justice.

Dinner Cruise

She did not have a nap yesterday so she was a little ill on the Cruise, but we did have a good time!

Traditional- Red Couch Picture

Traditional- Red Couch Picture

In the hotel lobby

Wayne and Kinsley were looking at the fish!

Break-through Morning!!!!!

This is the first time she let us give her a bath/shower without fighting and crying!!
We showed her before we got in, that we would put the wash cloth over her eyes and then she shook her head ok! She got in the tub (she still will not sit) and she let me soap her up and spray her off! Then, time to wash her hair. She did great! We put the wash cloth over her eyes and wet her hair with the sprayer then washed it and rinsed it! NO TEARS- Yea!! Yea!! We have done this every time but she would cry! But I guess she figured out that the soap would not hurt her eyes. She then would NOT get out! She played in the tub for about 20 minutes (standing of course).

Dinner

Last night we ate at a restaurant that had American food! It was so good. Wayne has been craving a hamburger this whole trip and I wanted the grilled chicken. We fed her from our plates! She loves French Fries!!!

Nap Time

Back at the hotel! Time for a nap!! She loves to go to sleep with her 2 fingers in her mouth, but as soon as she is completely out, her hands fall to the side!

Miss Independent

After a long hot day, we bought her some vanilla ice-cream!!
She loves to feed herself- Miss Independent!

The view up here...

She loved sitting on ba-ba's shoulders!!

Public Restrooms

You just thought it was hard to take a little kid to a public bathroom in America. Well, look at their toilet. This is the squatty potty! I had to hold her up with her legs out to the front for her and hover her over the toilet for her to go. I'm sure there has to be a better way to use that thing but that is the second time we have had to use one like that and I don't know what else to do. This is how all of the toilets are in public places here and also in everyone's home. We have a "Western" (American) toilet in our hotel room, Thank goodness!!

Botanical Gardens

After the TB skin test check, we went to the Botanical Gardens. She loved it!

TB Skin Test Check

She did great going back to the examination place. Her TB skin test turned out to be negative! yea!!!!

Note to Chasity

Chasity, I don't know how to find Christy Puckett. We both have Skype but when I type her name in to find her, there are about 4 or 5 with her same name. There seems to be about 100 families here and there is no way to know which one is her. If you talk to her family tell her to look me up on Skype my user-name is sandra.hairell

Rebecca

Our guide Rebecca and some other families from our adoption agency. The other pic is of us after the long day of shopping. She was so tired (we were too).

Shopping!

Our guide took us to a mall close by for some shopping. We had a good time but it was very crowded.

Lobby

Pic's in the hotel lobby

Traditional Chinese Clothing

This is one of the outfits we bought her. After we dressed her in it, we went to the hotel lobby to take pictures and she wanted to wear her back-pack!

Sunday Morning

Sunday morning 10-17-10. Helping ba-ba dress for the day!