Leaving Beijing Now - Headed Home

In flight now between Shanghai and Los Angeles. On time for scheduled arrival tonight of 8:50PM in Monroe. Will update blog if this changes.

Quick Message

It's been a busy morning for the Smith's. Brian and I are packing because we're leaving in just a little while for Bejing. We'll fly home out of Bejing tomorrow. Bella has been busy playing with her new rattle that Merrin gave her.

Yesterday we made the traditional "red couch" photo. For those who don't know, the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou has a red couch in the lobby. It's tradition for the families to have their girl's pictures taken on the couch. As luck would have it, our camera froze up and we didn't get a shot! However, our agency arranged for a photographer and we have a professional portrait of Bella and her Chinese Sisters. The other families will be sharing their snapshots with us, so as soon as I receive it, I'll post it. We did get some of just Bella and a family photo of us on the couch. We also got Bella and Lia's photo together too. Us and the Williamson's thought it would be cute to have Bella and Merrin dressed out in LSU on the couch; Bella and Merrin didn't agree with us.

Enjoy the pics!

Blessings and Cheesecake

It's been busy for our little Hunan Girl! Yesterday, she had her medical exam which she passed with flying colors. That night we had a birthday party for her friend, Elizabeth. After the party, Bella discovered splashing water and kicking her feet in the bathtub is a lot of fun! It was so much fun, she decided to give Mommy and Daddy "what for" when we took her out of the tub.

Today we went to the Six Banyan Temple.

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/guangdong/guangzhou/six_tree.htm

Bella, and 3 of her friends, received a blessing there. It was so gorgeous. We spent a little while walking around and just looking.

Following the Temple, we had our first trip to the zoo. Our guide arranged for us to ride through and it felt as if we were on display. A shuttle full of Americans with Chinese babies will definitely draw stares.

After lunch, Bella and Merrin they were up for some German food. Bella had her first taste of cheesecake, and as you can tell from the pictures, she definitely enjoyed it.

Daddy took his girls out for a date tonight at a local Italian restaurant. We met up with Merrin, Lia and their parents and had a great time. It was heartwarming to see the girls have impromptu play sessions.

We only have a couple of days left in China and I'm feeling sad. This is our daughter's birthplace and it is bittersweet to take her away from it. As excited as we are for everyone to meet our little miracle, it has been so special to have this time with her and her China Sisters. I'm hoping these little girls always stay close.

Guangzhou

Our little Bella is a very busy girl! She met up with her friends, Lia and Merrin, this morning for coffee and shopping. After walking around Guangzhou for a while, the trio stopped in at Lucy's for lunch. Then there is that baby that is always in the mirror. Whenever Bella spots her she makes an effort to talk and giggle to her. She also has her hands full keeping Mommy and Daddy on their toes.

Enjoy the pics. There's also one of her on her first flight yesterday.

Safe and Sound

The three of us are safe and sound in Guangzhou. The plane ride here threw Bella's tummy for a loop, but she never complained once. Brian and I have a very brave girl on our hands.

I'm hoping to have some pictures uploaded today for everyone. We have computers in our room (which I'm using now), but I have to figure out how to hook up my computer so I can download pictures.

Guangzhou has been described as "Savannah, GA". We're on Shaiman Island and it's gorgeous here. Tree lined streets and flowers blooming everywhere. We've borrowed a stroller from the hotel and we're about to take our little miracle for a stroll.

I hope to be back with pictures soon!

Guangzhou Bound

Just a note to let you all know we're leaving in the morning for the next stop on the Smith Family World Tour...Guangzhou China. This is where every adoptive family must come through before leaving China.

Wish us all luck and we'll post as soon as we're settled in! :)

Smiles From Changsha

Not much going on here, just playing and mastering the art of Cheerio eating.

Bella's Morning

Bella naps like a champ (knock on wood), so I thought I'd take this opportunity to post some pics of her day. This morning she spent the majority of her time playing with Mommy and Daddy. At lunch we tried her out with some mashed banana. She hasn't embraced the solid food idea yet, so we were excited to see her eat this banana. Enjoy!

More Pics

More pics for the fans at home!

Pictures

Here's a few pics of our little miracle for you all to enjoy. :)

Happy Wednesday

Bella has had such a great day today! Yesterday was spent grieving; today was spent winning Mommy and Daddy over. She woke up at 6:30am and has been in a great mood ever since. In the Chinese language, "Baba" is "Daddy". We've been using Baba and Daddy to describe Brian. Today she looked at Brian and said Baba. You would think it would be Daddy who started crying, but no, Mommy started crying. She has been giving us smiles and babbling like a champ. We are so in love.

We went to a park this morning and watched the eclipse that happened in our part of the world. The park was unlike any that we have at home. It was huge and has amusement park rides. Our guide, XiXi, explained that in China it's common to have parks such as this. Most people live in 800 sq ft homes/apartments, so they have to have a place to go to visit and be with friends.

After the park we visited the Hunan Embroidery Museum. There was gorgeous work there and Bella has a souvenir to enjoy when she's older.

Please excuse the fact that there's no pictures. I've been trying to upload pics for a while now, but they're just not going through. Mommy has to get in bed because it's late here! Will upload pics in the morning (my time).

Great Wall

Before we met Miss Bella, we spent time at the Great Wall and Summer Palace. I did post about this; however, the post is lost in space. I'll try to recap here: The Great Wall is truly something to behold. There were so many people there climbing the steps. Brian and I were some of these people too....for a little while. :) The heat fatigued me so I didn't make it was far as I was hoping.

Summer Palace was huge and beautiful. It was packed with people, but not all of them looked like us. Brian and I had a celebrity moment when a couple came up to us and motioned that they'd like for us to take a picture...literally. They wanted to pose with Brian and I for their camera. I also snapped one of our new friends with my camera.

Around these two spots, we made time to go to the jade and pearl market. Bella has gifts from both places, but I'm hoping she'll understand when her mommy wants to borrow her new jade bangle bracelet and necklace.

Enjoy the pics!

It's Official

It's official! Chen Zi Yu is our daughter. :) We went back to the Civil Affairs office today and completed all the paperwork. Brian and I were interviewed by two government officials and we had to promise to never abandon our baby girl. We signed our paperwork and Bella put her foot print on it.

Today has been a rougher day for Bella. She has been grieiving today and has pretty much slept the entire day. We've been told this is normal behavior for a baby who has been through what she has in the last two days. She's even sleeping through her meal times, so we're having to wake her up to feed her.

One family took pictures for everyone during the adoption interviews and signing of the paperwork, so I don't have any pics to post yet, but here's a few from last night.

Another Gotcha Day Picture

Pictures of Gotcha Day

Gotcha!

There are absolutely no words to describe today. At 11:00am, 7 babies found their way to their moms and dads. The only word you could use to describe it is "miracle".

We met our babies at the Civil Affairs office in Changsha. When we got there, they were already there, waiting on us. We immediately saw Bella sitting on a bench, with her nanny, waiting for us.

She's the most precious baby. We have not seen any tears today except for about 10 seconds before her nap. We also saw a few while she was getting her diaper changed (we've learned she does not like it). She is still very quiet, but has been entertaining us the entire day. She also took her first bath with us like a champ. We could not be more blessed than were are right now.

PS Sorry for the delay in posting. Mommy has been overwhelmed today. :)

Great Wall (again)

On Saturday, I posted a very lengthy post about the Great Wall and Summer Palace. I also included a lot of pics. However, the post never appeared. :(

I'll repost it soon; however, I can't right now because I'm getting dressed to go meet my baby! It is 8:00 AM here and we're meeting our group in the lobby at 10:30 for the drive to the Civil Affairs office. We have an 11:00 with our babies!!! Be looking for pictures of her soon!

Greetings From Changsha

We are now one giant step closer to Bella. Our group left the Novotel Peace Hotel in Bejng this morning and flew to Changsha, Hunan. Bella is from Chenzhou, Hunan, but we'll meet her in Changsha. Changsha is the Hunan province's capital. We're staying at the Dolton Hotel and are very happy we decided to upgrade to a suite. This will be home sweet home for the next five days. It was surreal to walk into our hotel room and see a baby bed and bathtub. Our tour guide informed all seven families that we are to be in the hotel lobby tomorrow morning at 10:30 because we have to be at the Civil Affairs office at 11:00 to meet our babies!!! I don't know how any of us are going to sleep tonight. On the van ride from the airport, our tour guide told us this was the "real China". Bejing is very commercial and now we'll get to really see what China is like. She warned us the only Americans that are here are the ones who are adopting. We need to be prepared for stares. We flew out of a small airport in Bejing and we could feel the stares on us. In China, it's not considered rude to stare, so it's very obvious when you're being stared at. I had quite an experience in the Shanghai Airport as I tried to knit in public. About a dozen women were standing over me and staring wihle I worked on a sock. Will share more later, but we have to unpack because we're meeting our group in the hotel lobby at 6:00pm for a local dinner We're not in Louisiana anymore! Will post pics later tonight.

We're Here!

We are in Bejing, safe, sound and tired.  I had plans to updae as soon as we wrrived; however, we had a couple of flight delays with China Easter, so we didn't make it to the hotel at 2:00am.  We both collapsed when it got to the room.   During the flight over, we missed Thursday night, so we didn't see nighttime until we got into Bejing.  Thas was a very strange feeling.   We're tourng the Great Wall and Summer Palace.  I'll pst more about our sightseeing latetr today.   The daty after tomororw, we'll be meeting Bella!!!

Last Post From Louisiana

It is now the night before we leave. We're leaving Monroe tomorrow at 7:00am. We are tired, but excited, and very ready to be there. My plan is to update our blog regularly while we're there so you will all know what's going on with us.

Please send positive thoughts and prayers our way. For our journey and for the transition our little girl is about to go through. She has no idea Mommy and Daddy are on the way.

'Til next time.....

Bella's Playroom

She's not even here yet and she's taking over the house! :) That's OK though. Since Bella quickly outgrew her bedroom, we decided to make one of the guest rooms a playroom.

Nothing fancy, but I am proud of it. Only two weeks ago it was a full bedroom.

Pictures of the nursery, and my other shower, are coming soon. It's been a little hectic around here.

A Little Video

I got a new computer and discovered something I can do on it. Enjoy...it's my first film. :)

If it can happen...

it will happen to us. The Chinese Government has changed part of their process for adoptive families during the final and official appointment in Guangzhou (the last stop on The Smith Family World Tour). Our paperwork may now not be worded correctly to bring home our child. I've been dealing with this since Thursday. I just e-mailed the Consulate in Guangzhou with all of our information and hopefully will hear back as soon as they're open Monday (Sunday night, our time).

I am so exhausted from the prep work to travel. I'm now looking forward to the 27 hour flight. I get to sit and read and knit and nap for 27 hours and not have ANYTHING that has to be done? Heaven!

NEW PHOTOS!!!

I recently heard about the most amazing company, http://ladybugsnlove.com/. It is a company that will place a phone call, on your behalf, to your child's orphanage and gather as much information as possible about them. You're limited to 10 questions, but their updated measurements are also included. They also try to get you photographs of your child. Kelly, the owner, is awesome and she worked very quickly to get information on our precious Chen Zi Yu. She is also a [recent] adoptive mommy and answered some travel questions for me.

Today, we received an e-mail from her with these priceless photos:

We believe these photos were taken this week! We know we're going to see her soon, but we both really needed to see this precious face again.

We learned she's 16.5 lbs and 27.9" long. She has two lower teeth and two upper teeth. Her head is 18.1" and her chest is 18.89". Her foot is 3.9" long.

We're just so thanksful to Ladybugs 'n Love for their service. We were talking about our angel over dinner and said we'd pay everyday is we could have photos of her.

Finding Ad

In China, all abandoned children's picture and information are placed in the local newspaper. This is a way to locate the birth parents. We were fortunate enough to find a company to help us locate Bella's ad. I wanted to share her sweet picture.
It's just our guess, but we think she's a week or two in this photo. Isn't she just precious?

Updated Travel Plans

Since I last posted about travel, a few things changed. For the better; no big deal. We are now officially leaving July 16th at 7:00am on American Airlines. We'll go from Monroe to Dallas to LAX to Bejing. We'll arrive in Bejing on July 17th at 11:55 pm, their time. If you figure it up, in our time, we'll be leaving July 16th at 7:00 am and arriving July 17th at 10:55am. That's a looooong time to be on planes. I guess we're going to truly learn the meaning of "cabin fever".

We'll be coming home on July 31st. We leave Bejing at 10:55am, and arrive in Monroe at 8:50pm. Somewhere in there we'll lose a day; that's why the flight home doesn't appear to be as bad. Trust me; we're sure it will be. :)

We'll be happy to have you all meet us at the airport! It's a Friday night, so there's no work the next day.