Day 6 continued'

This is in the lobby of our hotel. Trey and Dillon usually push the stroller and they get Coee bundled up when we go out.


Coee likes to chatter up with the boys and make faces and stuff. They just get along very well and it is awesome how Trey and Dillon have accepted her as their little sister and want her to be content. They are already her big brothers and have accepted that role with joy. I couldn't be prouder of how they act towards her and how they take care of her.


This is Coee's first go with Pizza Hut pizza and she loved it!


Here are a few more pictures from the day and an update on Coee!

She had her best day with us and is becoming more "contented" daily. She has been a pretty major "daddy's girl" up til' today, with me being the main one who could get her to stop crying, etc. It was even to the point that if I got up and left her with Michelle, she would just tune-up and cry until I got back.

Today, however, she would play with the boys in the floor, sit with Michelle, and even go to Michelle easily and not cry at all. The "daddy girl" thing is very common with adopted children here because of feeling abandoned by the nannies at the orphanage.

Anyway, Coee had a great day and is being very well cared for by her big brothers. They constantly help us with doing things for her and watching out for her on the bed and in the room.

For Trey and Dillon's class:
Question of the Day- How many dynasty's have their been in China's history?

See ya' tomorrow.

Day 6 in Nanchang

Today, we went to the Teng Weng Pavillion. It is one of the 5 major pavillions in China and is pretty amazing. It is similar in style to the buildings in the Forbidden City that we toured last Saturday in Beijing.

It is 6 stories tall and is very close to our hotel (about a 3 minute walk). I have included pictures of it below. We also saw a Chinese dance performance there today. It was neat, but very loud (need a new sound guy).

After the Pavillion, we just came back to the hotel and chilled for awhile. We did stop at a kite shop across the street from the hotel and looked at kites for Trey. He wants a "bird kite", like we saw at Tienanmen Square. They look like hawks flying overhead and are built very well. We will probably get one in Guangzhou.

We had Pizza Hut pizza for lunch and it was very similar to pizza in the US. Nice change from all the food we have had.

Tonight we ate at a restaurant a few blocks from the Hotel and it was great. Ordering is a challenge, none of the waitresses spoke any english and they broke out their phrase book. We do alot of pointing and sign language. Word of advice, the next thing they ask after you order steak is "how well you want it done", same as in the US! You just have no idea what they are asking and I know of know sign language that works for that.

For dad and anyone else interested in the weather............it sucks. It is about 50 degrees most days with no sun,................although I'm not sure you could see the sun anyway for the pollution. We all have raging coughs from breathing this foul air. We are just across a river from some really tall buildings, but you can't see them at all for the crap in the air. It is really amazing how polluted the air and water are here.

Trey and Dillon continue to attract attention. Trey went incognito at dinner tonight and wore a sock hat! They had people taking pictures with them at the Pavillion today. They have grudgingly accepted their celebrity!

Tomorrow we go to the countryside and to the porcelain areas.

See ya',
Terrell

Day 5 in Nanchang

Squat Pot- need I say more?!!



This is the outfit that we received Coee in. Under the outer layer, which is as thick as a ski-suit, she had 4 other layers on! 3 of the layers were thick sweater layers. She couldn't bend her elbows at all and was pretty miserable. Most of the children had similar outfits on.

This picture above shows Coee's fantastic noodle eating ability. Her paperwork showed that noodles were her favorite food and she showed it tonight. She slurps her noodles with commitment and experience!

Her shirt tells how we feel about her!


Well, today was a free day for us. We didn't have any group things to do, although we could go to the orphanage that our child came from if we chose to. We didn't. I had wanted to have Trey and Dillon see where Coee had been raised, but it was going to be a 3 hour bus ride each way to see the orphanage and I didn't want to put them thru that kind of trip after all the other traveling we have done.

So, we just hung out around the hotel and didn't do much of anything. Trey and Dillon continued their world championship game of "hallway hide and seek", and we went to the health club in the hotel for a little while.

Coee produced more snot today than any person of any size should be able to! We constantly were wiping her nose today and that made her very happy.............not!

The above pictures are from today and from "gotcha' day" when we got Coee. I also included a photo of a "chinese style" toilet, which is affectionately called a "squat pot". Trey and Dillon were a little shocked!

They are everywhere here. Our hotel has western style toilets in the rooms, but in the health club has both styles. The airport had both styles and most of the tourist places we have been have at least a few western style, but the majority are squat pots.

Rock Star Day!!

Well, today we had a free day and spent it shopping on the "Pedestrian Avenue" shops. Now we know how the Beatles felt coming to the US! (Ok, maybe a slight exaggeration, but it was very different for us)

We went with several people from our group and whenever we would stop, a crowd would gather. We split up and went shopping with just our family.



The above picture is of what happens when you take two 8 yr old boys with brown and blonde hair to a store full of teenage Chinese girls!

Trey and Dillon don't really get what all the fuss is about and certainly don't like it (especially Trey), but we have tried to explain that they are just interested and we are different. They will also think it is much cooler in about 4 or 5 years.

Here are some more pictures of the day:

These pictures are of some of the local quisine! The ice cream was good, the other stuff went wanting!

Here are the daily pictures of Coee:



She has been a bit of a daddy's girl today and is generally not happy unless she is with Terrell, as evidenced by him taking this picture and leaving her for a minute.

Thanks for all the comments, we love to get them and hate it when it is the middle of the night in the states.

Day 3 in Nanchang

We arrived in Nanchang on Sunday and have spent two very full days here! We got Coee yesterday, so that was a very intense day with our emotions, being part of 11 other families getting their children, knowing that taking Coee away from all that she knows is so hard for her, and all the other things that go into an adoption of an 11 month old little girl.

Last night Coee cried until about 10:00, her normal bedtime is 8:00. But once she got to sleep, she did great. She is a "loud" sleeper. She "talked" a lot in her sleep and moved around from one end of the crib to the other all night long, but she didn't cry at all. Dillon got in bed with me around 3:00 am, wide awake. I was trying to get him to go back to sleep but he ended up watching her move around in her crib and we both were laughing at 3:00 am!! Dillon gave up on sleeping at around 4:00 so he woke Trey up (didn't know he was going to do that) and they started watching movies and didn't go back to sleep until tonight at 8:00 pm.

Today was a whole different ballgame with her. She was happy, content, and ate good. She seems to take after her big brother Dillon a bit, in that she is very funny. She likes to mimic faces we make, specializing in sticking her tongue out, nodding her head, throwing her head back and - the specialty- an excellent fish face (see picture below). She did get fussy with us when we woke her up from her nap at 3:30 and put her on the bus with us for our trip to Super Wal-Mart! Yes, they have them in China too. If you think the Friday after Thanksgiving is busy in the US, just come to Wal-Mart in China on a Monday! There were 74 check-out lanes. The Wal Mart is three stories, so they have an escalator that you can take your cart on.

We felt like Brad and Angelina, with all of the people staring at us. Most would stare, smile, giggle, wave and say "hi", just wanting us to say something to them. I mean everyone was staring at us!! Trey and Dillon had their own followers, mostly teenage girls. They would stand and stare, giggle and wave. I think it goes without saying, Trey and Dillon were not amused and did not go along with the "Come on, just wave. It will make their day." attitude.

We spent the morning finalizing the adoption of Coee. We first went back to the adoption affairs office to have an "interview" with an adoption official. They took a picture of Coee, Terrell and I for a "family" picture as well as one of just her for her passport. Then, we went to a notary and then to the police department for them to have a record of Coee's face. Three stops, about three hours, it's done. We walked out and I said "That was easy." What I have always heard is true: Once your daughter is placed in your arms, the wait will melt away. Three years, a two inch thick dossier, countless "hoops" to jump through over and over again. She is so worth it! And as of today, it is official............she is our little girl!

When I say "we" did this and that, I mean the group of eleven families traveling with us. We have a guide named Dennis. He is awesome. He does everything from having our bags picked up and taken to the airport to check for us to bringing us the formula and rice cereal our babies are used to, to taking us to Wal Mart to "supervising" Trey and Dillon's hide-and-seek game in the hall, because someone was cheating. (I have no idea how you hide in a hotel hall, but Dillon quit playing tonight because he could never find Trey's hiding place.) Dennis will stay with us the whole two weeks. Trey and Dillon love him and are always saying that they are running down to Dennis' room to see what he is doing. They can tell you exactly where he is anytime of the day.

It's 9:00 pm here and all three (THREE!) of our kids are down for the night. We made Trey and Dillon stay up later than 7:00 tonight so maybe there won't be movies at 3:00 am. Coee fought hard again tonight, but finally fell asleep about 8:45. We have a free day tomorrow, but Dennis has offered to take us to the Pedestrian Avenue where there is lots of shopping and touristy shops. Trey and Dillon are ready to shop.

Thank you for all the comments. We love to read them. Keep them coming!

Love,
Terrell, Michelle, Trey, Dillon and Coee

We have our Coee!

Well, here she is!!!!

It has been quite the eventful afternoon! The process at the adoption center here in Nanchang is a fairly chaotic event. 11 families traveled here today by plane from Beijing (in our group) and received their children. They had most of them dressed in traditional dress outfits over another layer of clothing, over another sweater, over a long sleeve shirt! I (Terrell) had on shorts, a l/s t-shirt and sandals. Coee and most of the others have cried quite a bit, but she is doing better since her bath. She loved her bath! Coee is very cute, smiles and laughs. She is also a bit like her cousin Paige in her affinity for tags!

She will probably be walking pretty quick, she walks now with just a little help from our fingers holding her up as she moves along. She enjoys us singing to her and she is very verbal in how she asks for things or comments on what we are doing.

Trey and Dillon have been awesome with her, playing, bringing cheerios for her and helping us get stuff situated for her. Dillon has been singing to her and she really likes that.

We will post more soon!

Beijing Day One!

We arrived in Beijing at about 3:30 pm, after a lovely plane trip of only 14 hours from Chicago and the additional benefit of our early morning flight from Nashville to Chicago. This day started out for us at 3:30 am in Nashville (at a hotel), we had to be at the airport at 4:30 for our flight out to Chicago at 6:30.

Trey and Dillon got up with us great and helped get our mound of luggage to the airport. We arrived in Chicago at approx. 8:30 and had a layover until we boarded the plane at 11:50 and took off at 12:20 pm. 14 hours later it was 3:30 in the afternoon in Beijing.

We had a neat flight over parts of Canada, the Arctic Circle, Siberia and Outer Mongolia. Our earth is one big planet! We went from bright sunshine leaving Chicago to a pretty sunset (that lasted for about 2 hours) at some point at the northern end of Canada, to nighttime over the Arctic and then a sunrise in Siberia and finally, day time over outer Mongolia and northern China.

Trey and Dillon did great on the plane, they finally slept for about 4 hours each towards the end of the flight and got down in the floor of the plane to watch their dvd players. They each have Ipods, DVD players, Nintendo DS Lites and books and games to play in their backpacks. Dillon pulled a tooth at 32,000 feet!

We saw floating sheets of ice in the oceans above Canada and the most other-worldly, barren landscape I have ever seen in Siberia and Mongolia. No trees for thousands of miles, just alot of nothingness for great expanses of time.

At the hotel, Trey wanted to sleep before dinner and he and Michelle took a "nap" beginning within 15 minutes of getting into our room, lasting until midnight. We were up from 12 -3, and then Dillon woke up at 2:30. Trey and I went back to sleep around 3:00, and Dillon stayed up for the duration watching movies and playing his Nintendo.

We all got up at 6:30 and got started with our day of touring Beijing. We began with Tiananmen Square, then on to The Forbidden City, and finished up with The Great Wall of China. The amount of people and buildings and construction going on (primarily in preparation for the 2008 Olympics) is AMAZING, as is the amount of pollution in this city. We have yet to see the sun and Terrell and I both are already beginning a lovely sounding smokers cough.

Words can't hardly describe the Great Wall of China if you haven't seen it. We went to one section today and walked up to one of the towers and it is an unbelievable place. Building the wall today would be a massive undertaking and doing in the time it was done is just unimaginable to me.

The Forbidden City is also a stunning architectural sight, and is immense in size. There were so many palaces and courtyards, we lost count.

Tomorrow is the big day!! We fly from Beijing to Nanchang at 11:30 am. Shortly after arriving and checking into the hotel, we will take a fifteen minute bus ride to the Center for Adoption Affairs office, where we will finally get to meet and hold Coee in our arms. Please pray for the best transition possible for her. We can't imagine how frightened she will be, but hopefully it will go as smooth as possible and she will warm up to us quickly.

For the kids at Lone Oak elementary, we will have a "question of the day" that you can answer in the comments.

Trey and Dillon's question of the day:
How long is the Great Wall of China?