May 29th, 2007 - A visit to Walmart!

One year ago today, we FINALLY had a relatively calm day in China. In the morning, our guide was kind enough to take us to a great American institution, Walmart! Here's Sophie all ready to go:

Walmart in Nanchang was very similar to the ones in the U.S., even down to those annoying smiley-face signs. We bought baby formula, soda, water, and some children's CDs. It was fun to wander around for an hour or so. The food department was particularly interesting, with live eels in tanks and more things we'd never seen, let alone eaten, before.

The Walmart was two stories high. Outside on the first floor was a Kentucky Fried Chicken that we grabbed lunch on our way back to the bus. I forgot to have the hold the lettuce (even though they wouldn't have understood me anyway - I had to point to the pictures to order), and even though we picked it off, I was afraid it would make us sick! The original breading is much spicier in China.

That afternoon, a local tailor came to the guide's room and spread out everything that she made. We selected dresses for the girls and EJ picked the fabric that she liked. They measured her up and everything was back in a few days.

That night, we ate dinner in the restaurant on the second floor of the hotel, where the food was considerably better than the buffet on the first floor where we ate breakfast every day and dinner most other days. The food there was okay, but after the same things for two meals a day, it was nice for a change.

The laundry service was incredible. On Monday, we sent out the laundry from the trip thus far. It came back within 24 hours all neatly folded and shrink-wrapped in bags - all of my shirts together, all of EJ's shorts together, etc. The most amazing thing was that EVERY piece had a small tag hand-sewn into it with our hotel room number on it. And socks were stitched together. I ought to do that so that they don't disappear in the dryer. And it was done for about $40. If I could have someone do all my mountains of laundry at home for that price, I might be interested.

May 28th - FAMILY DAY!!!

Today, we celebrate FAMILY DAY - the day our family became complete. It was one year ago today that we FINALLY got our hands on little Miss Sophie just a little before 11 A.M. in the conference room at the Gloria Hotel in Nanchang.


K rarely smiles for pictures, but he's beaming in this one. Sophie was a little bit flopsy, though, and wasn't cooperating for the photo op:

And EJ was thrilled to finally have her little sister in her arms. See that little red triangle around Sophie's neck? It was given to us by the orphanage. It's a red fabric pouch with her Chinese name embroidered on it in gold. It was filled with stones from the grounds of the orphanage (and what feels like a coin?) and sewn shut.

Our very first family portrait:

Before we did all the legal proceedings a few hours later, we had to sign temporary custody paperwork so we could take Sophie back to our room.

In the room, we gave her a bottle...

...and got to know her a little better.

She studied us quite a bit and tried to figure out if we were keepers or not:

After a nice nap and a change of clothes, we were off to the 26th un-air-conditioned floor of the Civil Affairs building to finalize the adoption. It was SO hot and humid this day and we were all in this huge waiting room huddled around one fan trying to keep the babies cool.

Another family portrait in the hallway, holding the official adoption decree (the "Red Book"):

These were the nannies who accompanied Sophie and three other girls from the orphanage to Nanchang:

Fast forward to today. Our social worker came by for a visit so she can write our 12-month follow-up report that is required by China. She stayed for some Chinese food for dinner and we caught a photo of Sophie with her. Thanks, KD for all your help in the process!

And while she was here to function as photographer, she got a one year later family portrait for us! (Yes, EJ was modeling her ballet costume!)

And, for updated photos for Sophie, here are some from yesterday with her rainboots on...she's completely fascinated by them!

Here are a few I snapped tonight while she was getting ready for bed:

Gosh, I love that smile. What a great family day...

May 27, 2007 - Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Hutong Tour

One year ago today, we toured Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City (where the emperors lived), and took a tour of the old hutong houses. It was a long day of touring in very high temps (mid-90s) with lots of walking. It was quite exhausting. Here's our beloved guide, Rose, at the beginning of the day:

I like this shot of EJ looking at the students patrolling one of the monuments, while one little boy gets his picture taken against a gate:

The Square has a lot of interesting buildings...in this shot, the building in the background is where lawmakers meet. The Square is a public gathering spot where families flew kites...

...children played...

...and soldiers patrolled...

Here we are on the side of the Square with the entrance to the Forbidden City in the background. You can see the famous portrait of Chairman Mao above my head.

Here's a better shot of him:

The Forbidden City is enormous...a total of nearly 10,000 rooms. Once inside, you can walk over one of five bridges. Our group chose the Bridge of Knowledge:

Many temples are being restored in time for the Olympic tourist rush:

I never remember what these little creatures on the roofline are called, but the more of them there are on each corner of the roof, the more important the inhabitant of the building.

Rubbing the gold knobs on the huge doors will bring good luck!

Here's a cute little guy wearing his split pants. Babies in China aren't bothered with diapers, they just squat and go.

After several hours in the Forbidden City (which, by the way, has a STARBUCKS inside it!), it was time for a hutong tour to eat lunch with a local family. This was a totally insane thing to do...to get there, we rode in rickshaws...in totally insane Beijing traffic. K's driver was fired at the first stop for getting a little too close to a speeding bus!

The view from inside the rickshaw:

I had packed lots of snacks in my backpack this day, because quite honestly, we were a little nervous about eating at someone's house. Would the water be okay? Was the stuff cooked enough? Once we got there, the smells were amazing, and I can report that this was by far the best meal we ate in China. My favorite was the pork with garlic shoots in the lower left corner of this picture. I'd love to have that recipe!

Here's EJ in the small kitchen in which the meal was prepared:

After lunch, we were able to tour around the hutong (a house set in a quadrangle with three other houses, most occupied by members of an extended family). Many of the old hutongs have been destroyed by new development, but there is renewed effort to preserve them now.

They are very proud to be hosting the Olympics this year, and had news articles about it hanging up!

In the courtyard outside the hutong.

Next, we walked several blocks to the Bell Tower Tea House for a tea tasting.

After a full and exhausting day, we went to the Beijing airport and caught an evening flight to Nanchang to meet Sophie the next day. Poor EJ was so tired that she crashed at the Nanchang airport while we were collecting our luggage.

May 26 - The Great Wall

One year ago today, we climbed the Great Wall of China!!! What an experience. It's something that I never imagined I'd be doing. It was very surreal. There aren't many other things in my life that I can say that about. In 1991, I had the opportunity to travel to Moscow on business. There's another trip that I can honestly say I never imagined. Red Square, Lenin's Tomb, St. Basil's Cathedral. Who knew I'd be so into touring the capitals of communist nations?!?!

The day started off with a tour of a jade factory. We got to see how jade is selected, the different grades of it, and an artist in action:

This was one of the pieces on display in the gift shop.

One of the few must-have souvenirs on my list was a jade bangle. I thought about waiting until we got to Guangzhou to buy it, but figured I might as well buy it here, where the quality was known (and the prices were higher, I'm sure). This beautiful young saleswoman was helping me to select a bangle - there were many colors to choose from - dark green, light green, white, or even lavender. I couldn't decide and at one point, she had about four bangles on my arm for me to choose from.

Now, all during this excursion, I was looking at the price tags on each and mentally dividing by eight to get the price in dollars. I thought I was looking at bangles in the $200 price range, but imagine my horror when I realized I had dropped a zero and they were actually about $2000 each! And I had four or five of them on my arm at once! Talk about some bling! I immediately apologized and told the woman that they were out of my price range. No problem, she said, and she asked what I wanted to spend. When I told her about $200, she took me to the B grade jade, but my bangle is lovely and I treasure it! It's mostly white with a little green in it. Someday, it will be Sophie's. And I bought Emma a rabbit pendant.

EJ was quite the attraction at the store - the salesgirls all loved her fair hair. A few of them grabbed her by the hands and took her into another room where they immediately made her up with a traditional Chinese 'do (you can see it below in the Great Wall pics).

Next, we were off to the Wall. The mountains on the way there were stunning:

This is the first view of the Wall when we got off the bus. You know, I didn't really notice it until I looked through these pics today, but the sky was so incredibly blue and clear outside of Beijing, not like what you would expect based on what you hear about pollution there. Honestly, the air quality didn't really bother us that much. I remember it being much worse in Moscow.

The portion of the Wall that you get onto first has a whole chain full of locks along it. Couples put a lock on the chain and toss the key over side. Notice EJ's hairdo!

I had imagined I would hike all the way to the top of this very steep section that we visited (the Badaling section). But wow...it was so much steeper than I expected - almost like a ladder in some spots. And the steps were all uneven, which made the climb tricky...one would be about 6 inches high and the next might be 14 inches high. We made it as far as the first tower - here's a view down - very dizzying!

We went up on top of the first tower for these shots:

K and EJ went back down after reaching the first tower, but I decided to see if I could go a little higher. I made it to the next platform up (about halfway to the 2nd tower), but it was about 90 degrees that day and very crowded, so it was frustrating and exhausting. And coming down was just as tough as going up because you really had to pay attention with each step.

From the platform, you could see the wall stretching across the mountains...just fabulous.

Perhaps if I resume my stairmaster training now, I can make it to the top when we make a return trip when Sophie's older!

This year, we did go camping - but just for one night. We decided not to fight the traffic and a late setup on Friday evening, so we left Saturday morning and came home Sunday night. We hope to be up there many more weekends in the next month. EJ decided to try the Fun-Yaks.

We came home early because EJ wanted to participate in the community Memorial Day program, where the 3rd and 4th grade chorus was invited to sing:

Sophie saw one of her best buddies there - her friend from daycare...another China sister! These two have really taken to each other - like they know they have a special connection.