Hoping for a better night

Last night was a bad one at our house. It was 6:30 am until I had my first sleep for the night. Unfortunately, Anna is having lots of trouble with the time change adjustment. Grace takes about 3 naps a day and sleeps a few hours at night if she is not throwing up in her bed. Grace has been throwing up at least a couple times a day which I think is gag reflex and having a cough. I started making her bottles a little thicker to see if that would help since I am wondering if she is getting liquid in her lungs. I am not trying foods other than congee (rice porridge) because she has such trouble with gagging. Sometimes she will throw up immediately after a bottle, but it can be a half hour or two or three hours after a bottle when she throws up. I have an appointment with Grace's doctor on Monday so it will be good to brainstorm with him and hear his ideas. Grace is pretty good natured even though a couple more teeth are cutting since leaving China. She definitely wants to me held lots so that is what I am getting done here. We are thinking of going to church tomorrow if we have a decent night, but we will see how we feel in the morning.

We are home!!

There were no flight problems coming home, actually all our flights were on time. I am glad we came home on yesterday since Detroit had 8 inches of snow today. One day would have made it a lot more difficult with the news reporting that about 1000 flights were cancelled today due to bad weather. It was fun to be welcomed at the airport by Bonita, Angela's family, and Paster Lori. Anna loved the signs at the airport so much that we let have her wish of being in charge of the signs here at the house. My parents came over today for a short visit since going to the airport at night would be too hard on Dad.
my mom was able to hold Grace without any crying (from Grace) which is better than she did for other family members at the airport. Anna is still not asleep, and I hear her coming down the stairs. I let her sit with me for a few minutes. Now Grace is awake because she threw up in bed. Grace has a cold and the coughing causes her to throw up easily. I think I better go-I will post more tomorrow.

Tuesday - last post from China

All the paperwork went smooth and is complete at the US Consulate. Tomorrow we have the "oath ceremony" where we will have no pictures because we are not allowed to even bring a camera in the building. This morning we played in the "Swan Room" which is a baby play area in the White Swan Hotel with many babies from our group. Anna received lots of attention playing ball and chase with me and other adults from our FTIA group as Grace finished her half hour morning nap. After waking Grace liked playing ball and playing with the small kitchen. Anna and I did a little shopping, just the two of us, in the afternoon. Last night, the three families with Yangxi babies from Guangdong Providence tried a little local restaurant that Margie found. The food was great and atmosphere even better.

Roy started packing dirty clothes today, and we are excited about only one more day until traveling home, Roy wasn't feeling so well today- he said he had really low energy but was a trooper joining us on outings. He doesn;t think he is getting sick, maybe it is just the jet lag catching up with him. This will be our last post until we are home. We fly out early Thursday morning (Wed evening Indy time) starting at Guangzhou to Tokyo to Detroit to Indianapolis. For those meeting us at the airport, it is Northwest Airlines landing at 6:33pm from Detroit. Thanks for all the support we have received!!!!

The girls are both down for a nap and Roy is exercising so I thought it was a good time for me to organize pictures and start a blog post for tonight. So far we have taken about 600 pictures and that is after deleting lots of the "nothing" pictures Anna has taken just for the entertainment of taking pictures. The tour this morning was two places we went to 4 years ago with Anna. The Temple and the Folk Art Museum are very pretty and very old China. We were out for only 3 hours but it always seems longer with the girls. At 5 pm today we are going to take the Red Couch picture with the babies and a group picture too. When Roy returns from working out I would like to see if Roy and I can get some Chinese shirts for the pictures since I already got matching outfits for the girls. We are thinking of ordering Papa John's pizza tonight (yes Papa John's is here in China) since pictures may take a lot out of the girls. Tomorrow the passports and visa will be picked up at the US Consulate by our guide, Helen; but she wants us around the room at noon in case she needs to call us with any paperwork problems. Hopefully all will go smooth. Wednesday, we go to the US Consulate for an "Oath Ceremony" where we promise to love and never abandon or abuse Grace. Then pack on Wednesday night to fly out very early on Thursday morning. Yes the countdown for home is here!!

Anna is trying to teach Grace to walk in some of the pictures; they mainly play. Grace can now say mama, can make kisses, and cut a new tooth on the bottom today. Her mouth looks like she could be getting lots more teeth soon. Anna and I had a foot and back massage today as our special outing together - my choice, of course. We also went to the park both in the morning and afternoon, which is Anna favorite. This evening we decided to eat Chinese in the hotel. It is a 5 star restaurant, and the food and live music were fantastic. I was glad we didn't have any break-downs in the restaurant. Both girls fell asleep at the end of the meal. Grace woke up when I put on her PJ's and is still awake, but Anna only woke to brush her teeth then went to sleep for the night at only 7:30pm. I think it was the massage that must have relaxed Anna or maybe all the playing at the park. Tomorrow we start touring at 9:30am which should be a good day.

Great Birthday for Mommy

Saturday morning, Ann talked in a very grown-up way about her emotions. She told me that she has a million different emotions all at the same time where sometimes is doesn't like Grace and Mommy and sometimes she loves us. I let her talk and know that this is all normal. I was so proud of Anna for being able to express herself so well. Anna still has always been gentle and kind with Grace even if the other emotions are present.

Today was the first day Grace showed up that she could stand up in her crib on her own as Anna and her played in the crib together. It is also the first day we got BIG laughs from Grace when we blew air/raspberries on her tummy.

I had a great birthday celebration! The White Swan Hotel brought a cake up to the room with a red rose since our coordinator told the hotel it was my birthday. This evening the 6 families went to dinner together, and it was fun to hear how the 3 families from the other providence were doing now that we are all at the White Swan Hotel to finish the paperwork. I included pictures of the other 3 families at the hotel breakfast this morning.

We are doing well and tomorrow is a free day with no paperwork or tours.