Sarah

Sarah is still really congested and yucky this morning. Her cough is worse - not in depth but in how often she is coughing. I can hear gunk in her lungs when she coughs and I'm not sure her cough is powerful enough to get it out. We have been patting her back hoping to loosen it up a bit. It doesn't sound like it is rattling like it should be something we have to take her to the doctor for but enough to keep her up at night. We had a long hard evening.

She is not running a fever and seems happy still. Her nose is a bit runny and she has somew sneezing. We just want to make it home wihtout issues and get her some cough medicine or something to help relieve the congestion. I'm going to ask the others in my group if they have any cough syrup or decongestant this morning. That is one thing I didn't bring with us.

ANY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR WHAT TO DO ARE APPRECIATED! :)

We'll try to post pictures this afternoon for the last time because tomorrow is our travel day - thank goodness! We are more than ready to come home! We miss Brandon and Hannah so much!!

updated to say that one of the moms had some Triaminic Day Time Cold and Cough that we gave her. The dosage for her weight is 1/2 tsp but we only gave her 1/4 tsp. I'm hoping a smaller dosage will work for her. So far she seems happy still. The cough is still there - the indicator will be nap time and bed time. Her runny nose is clear so there is no sign of infection. I think we just have a bit of a cold. I'll be glad when we are home and I can take her to the doctor if I need to. Brent just has to get her on our insurance on Monday - hopefully it will just take a phone call!

More pictures later today of the "red couch". Our consulate appointment is at 2:45 but I hear it is anticlimatic. They ask if everything we have told them is true on the paperwork - we say yes - they say okay and good bye. Man, I can not wait to get out of here!

Only one more full day...

and a day of travel and we will be home!!! We are so excited and ready to come home! Brandon - good job on getting your homework done quickly! Is it hard or easy? What did you need to do? I'm glad I'll be able to help next week! Hannah - we can't wait to see your green nails! I'm sure you look fabulous! Sarah is really wanting to walk. She can balance herself but isn't confident at all - she stands when she doesn't realize it. We have been letting her walk holding on to our hands a lot in the room and playroom. She will be walking in no time. We are going to get Internet for the day so that we can do some picture posts today and tomorrow afternoon. We have our consulate appointment at 2:45 tomorrow then we are completely finished with everything here. Just need to pack it all up and get ready to come home. We leave the hotel at 5:45 a.m. and our flight leaves at 8:20 a.m. I wish we were leaving a little earlier but we are at the mercy of our guide. Grace and her mommy and aunt are leaving with us so we will be able to say goodbye at the airport. It was great to make a new friend for both Sarah and mommy here! We will definitely stay in touch! Pictures from the last few days: Six Banyan Temple: this is a huge pagoda in the temple that was wonderful! The colors and the buildings were amazing. The monk did a blessing for the babies. After the temple we went to a government run shop that sells pottery, jade and other crafts. The first picture is of a master porcelain painter the second is his apprentice. The work was fabulous. The master painter was from Jiangxi (Sarah's province) where they are well known for their porcelain. The next picture is of a man painting with only his hands - no brushes. The work was amazing! We picked up a bookmark that he did. Next we went to a mall - it was enourmous! We went through a section that was beads, just beads, millions of beads! After we went to the shop we took Sarah to the pool for the first time. I think we have a swimmer on our hands. She is not afraid of the water at all and put her face in a few times (on her own!) She loved it. We spent about an hour or so splashing in the kiddie pool. I'm going to have to pick up some floaties for Hannah and Sarah because I won't be able to keep my eye on both of them at the same time! Grace at the mall Sarah swimming with Daddy This morning it was actually cooler than it has been since we have been here so Brent and I took Sarah for a walk in the park by the Pearl River. There was a nice breeze coming in. There were so many people out! They get together and exercise. There were some people doing some exercises (I think that is what it was) with swords. Some were using a paddle and a small ball - balancing it while moving the paddle around. It was very pretty! There was a small pond that was nice. We had to stay in our rooms from 10 to noon because our guides were at the consulate dropping off our paperwork for tomorrow and if they had any questions they needed to be able to reach us. It started to storm a bit which cooled things off for a little while this afternoon as well. I'll be glad to get to our heat and not this type of heat! Sarah is still coughing. We do not want to take her to a doctor here so pray that we make it home with not incidents. She is still happy and smiling so we think she is okay.

Wednesday the 30th

It is the morning of the 30th here - evening of the 29th at home.

Sarah is really trying to walk - I have some pictures of her that I'll try to post later before our internet time runs out. We are leaving in about a half hour to do some sight seeing. We picked up some little squeaky shoes for her - they are black with a pink flower and squeak (think dog toy) when she walks. She LOVES them. She stamps her feet and wants to be down. She is a bit congested this morning. The humidity is so high that you are always damp so when you come into the buildings you cool off fairly quickly (the AC isn't like at home where it is really cool - just cooler and dryer than outside). I think that it has caused her to have a little cold.

She is saying MaMa but Brent thinks it is just a noise she makes - I don't think so though!

Brent took some pictures outside last evening that came out really pretty - lots of neon here. Again, I'll try to post one more time tonight with pictures.

Sarah has really come out of her shell the last few days. She is smiley and happy most of the time. She is having a hard time taking naps and going to sleep at night. She is fighting it and fighting it until she just collapses exhausted. It has been a tough few days with that.

Tell Hannah I'm not sure about the green nailpolish. Maybe in a few months! She doesn't sit still long enought for any nail polish to dry.

Tuesday, 29th

Unfortunately our days of free internet access are over at the White Swan. We have to pay to get online now so we may not post daily - we will be home soon though!

Yesterday was exciting as it was Sarah's first plane ride. She did well - the seats are small and keeping little hands away from other passengers and food is a challenge! She is so curious about everything! Overall she did great!






Today we had her medical exam. She is a whopping 20 pounds - the second largest baby in the group right behind Grace who is 21 pounds. The other babies seem like they are in the 15-17 pound range. Sarah is healthy but they gave her some medication for the rash on her face. It may be an allergic reaction to something or just a general rash. We will take her in to the doctor when we get home to see. It isn't a big concern.






The hotel we are staying in (White Swan) is beautiful. I can't wait to get out tonight to see the lights on the river. We had a glimpse of them last night. We did have "real American" food last night for dinner and today for lunch. It was nice to have something familiar. The buffet for breakfast here is so much better than in Nanchang.






Brandon - how did your first day of school go? We thought about you all day hoping you had a great time! We miss you so much and love you bunches! Tell Hannah we love her and miss her too!

I lied... pictures

From yesterday - I love this first picture:

She won't wear the sunglasses but they are a fun toy:

Happy girl:
I love Grandma:
Playroom fun:
She can not crawl or roll over contrary to the information we received last month. We put her on her stomach for a bit and she enjoyed it for about 5-10 minutes.
Sarah's best buddy, Grace
So big! We've been practicing! You have to clap afterwards.
"This is happy place"
Ready for bed kissing my duck. I bite his beak to give him a kiss. Then Mommy or Daddy has to kiss him too.

I just liked her pose in this one.
Checking out pictures of Brandon and Hannah

From this morning:

Monday morning for us - Sunday afternoon for you

Sorry there are no new pictures up. Last night we had to pack up our things so they could be taken to the airport and I packed the cord for the camera. We will post pictures tonight from the last few days if we get into Guangzhou and have Sarah in bed at a reasonable time. I think our flight is at 5:30 and it is about an hour and a half flight then getting luggage and a 30 minute drive to the airport. We should have her in bed by 7:30 or 8 if all goes well.

Sarah is really coming out of her shell every day. We are so excited! She says MaMa a lot and Brent really encourages her that that is me. We are working on DaDa too (not as much with me since both Brandon and Hannah said DaDa first - I'm hoping at least Sarah connects MaMa to me first!)

She loves to stand and tries to do it without holding on to us. I think Brent got a few pictures of it yesterday afternoon while we were in the playroom. She is getting brave and we are encouraging it as much as we can. She will be walking before we know it!

She has also started to feed herself a bit more. Janet asked what she eats - everything we give her! She does still take bottles of formula (about 3 or 4 a day) but at dinner and lunch we give her things we are eating as well. We found a little market about 4 blocks from the hotel and picked up some baby cereal - the rice stuff - that we give her usually before we go down to find food for us so her belly is a little full. Then she eats congee which is like a thick rice soup. I need to look up the recipe but it looks easy - lots of water when cooking the rice. It is very bland but the locals usually add other spices and meats to theirs. Sometimes we can get it flavored with beans which I do for protein for her. It is supposed to be soothing on their bellies.

She loves watermelon! She also eats regular rice. They call it fried rice here when they add scrambled egg and bits of ham - not really fried to me since it isn't brown - but still tasty all the same. She likes banana bread and bananas - she ate a whole one at lunch yesterday. We give her bits of non-spicy meat (if we are daring enough to try it ourselves!) They sometimes have the steamed egg at the buffets so we give that to her too. LiPing said that is easy to make as well but he is so hard to understand that I'll have to look that one up. It looks like a quiche but only made of egg, sugar and a bit of water over a double boiler(?). That is the jist of it from what I got from LiPing.

She really will try just about everything. She is also starting to feed herself. Remember before she would pick up the pieces of food and hand it to us to give to her. Now if we aren't watching too closely we will see her put it in her own mouth. If we do we praise her and clap for her. I think in the orphanage they were scolded for that.

I wanted to tell everyone about the beds - think a cement slab with a cotton batting over it. My poor hips and back! I have been sleeping fairly well the last few nights because I'm just so tired. I hear the beds at the White Swan aren't much better. I can't wait to sleep in my own bed.

We haven't done much the last few days - hung out in the hotel playing with the other babies in the playroom. Sarah and Grace seem to get along pretty good - they share fairly well. It is nice to have someone else to hang out with. I think too much of one person can get to you and Brent and I have not spent this much time in a confined space for this long, ever! We have been doing pretty well with it and try to get out as much as possible. We walked to the corner store yesterday and back but the heat was too much. We are both glad for a change of scenery tomorrow.

The next few days are going to be busy - medical exam for Sarah, Consulate appointment among others. I think there is something everyday until we leave. Luckily it isn't all day because she really needs her nap still.

We'll try to post more tonight so when you wake up there is a little something of Sarah.

Sat. Night- Sun Morn

It is about 4:30 p.m. on Saturday evening there and about 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning here. Sarah had another really good night - she woke up around 2:30 crying. I'm not sure that she was even awake, it seemed like night terrors. We got her back to sleep - she likes the crib jiggled. I think there is a contraption that you can buy to put on a crib that makes it vibrate - I definitely am looking for one of those - I need one!

Brent was up not feeling great at about 2:30 as well. On their excursion yesterday they ate lunch and it is not agreeing with him. Travelers issues. He and Brian were laughing at dinner last night about it though. They ate rabbit which Brent says is quite good. There was also an egg dish that Brian asked what kind of eggs it was made from. Bruce (our guide that speaks English quite well) said Ox. (or mutton - I'm not sure after the laughing and the discussion that ensued with the rest of our group) Eventually Bruce settled on chicken. Of course he could have just been placating the Americans. Brent said he tried most of the stuff but not all. They had a duck dish that was similar to the one we had the evening prior except Brent and Brian said there was a duck foot in it. Brian claims you could have picked your teeth with the claw on the foot. Yuck is all I can say and poor Brent. He felt like he should taste things so as not to offend. What a guy! :)

I posted a comment in the previous post about the picture of Sarah in the balls. She was NOT a happy camper in the picture but I love the face she makes when she isn't happy. She grits her teeth (sort of) and makes a whiny growling noise. She doesn't cry often but does show discontent.

I don't think we are doing much today. It is our last full day here - tomorrow we leave for Guangzhou. Only 6 more days until we come home. I'm ready. Sarah is waking up so I need to go and get her ready for the day. I'll post more pictures this evening so eveyone has something to wake up to. We love reading the comments - it makes me feel closer to home.

Tell Brandon we didn't eat the fish head either - we just laughed about it and were quite grossed out about it. I don't think I saw Bruce or LiPing eat it either. I'm sure all the locals thought we were quite hysterical.

Oh, I forgot to tell Brandon a story - when we went to the TengWang Pavillion the other day there was a beetle tied to a string on the gates going into the area. I thought it was a beetle caught in some loose thread. We made a comment about it and walked through the turn style. I was the last one through and the lady came over and handed me the end of the string - the beetle was attached and started flying around trying to land on anything - it was the funniest thing! I think she wanted us to keep the beetle - apparently they do this often? I politely said "No Thank You!" and handed it back. We love you!

Pictures from Saturday

How daddy spent his day - in the countryside - it was a very tiring day



How some of the girls spent their day - in the hotel children's room.

Grace and Betsy
Easton
Abby
Easton and Kerry
Pictures from dinner last night - Sarah was VERY animated - she is breaking out of her shell.

"fish heads, fish head, rolly polly fish heads!"
clockwise from brown bowl: in bowl "peacock?", dim sum, duck, pork, pumpkin (not shown: rice, watermelon, wonton soup, boiled egg custard - for the babies)

A statue on the walking street.