Friday, June 24, 2005
Four weeks home
Hello everyone. Can you believe we've been home with Hallie for four weeks? This time four weeks ago Brett, Hallie and I were high above the Pacific Ocean headed for the U.S. Today, Hallie and I are sitting in the living room in our PJ's playing with her toys!
Hallie is adjusting to life here more and more each day! She loves Orion (aka Buddy) and he is very patient with her. Her new favorite thing is feeding him food off her plate, either directly or dropping it on the floor. Needless to say they have become best friends!
Hallie is very smart. I know I am a little biased, but it is true. She picks up the phone (the real phone, cell phone, or her play phone) and puts it up to her head and talks (just baby talk, but it's talk). She knows how to give a "Hi 5". She loves music and often dances when she hears it. And when I say "bottle" or "are you hungry" she makes a cute little eating sound with her mouth! I know she completely understands us. There is no communication problem with this baby!
Last night Hallie and I went to a Memphis Redbirds game. My office had group tickets. She loved it! There was so much to see and do. Her eyes were so wide and she pointed at everything. She danced to the music, waved at kids, played with a ball, and even ate a nacho (no jalapenos!).
Last week we went to the Zoo and she had a blast! She is so observant and pointed at the monkeys, jaguar, and (her favorite) the pandas. She received a stuffed panda from her cousin Mat and his finance Shelly that she just adores. She hugs it all the time.
Today we're going to get out our new pool. It's one of those blow-up types, and, if it's as big as the picture on the box, Brett and I may get in with her.
Tomorrow we are going to the Dragon Boat Festival celebration. Our local Families With Children From China (FCC) group organizes it. The Dragon Boat Festival is one of the big holidays in China, so FCC families get together each year to celebrate it with the kids. We'll take our camera, so look for new pictures in the coming days.
Well, that is about all for now. I will try to give you weekly reports on Hallie's life! It is so entertaining for us, we hope it is for you too!
Hallie is adjusting to life here more and more each day! She loves Orion (aka Buddy) and he is very patient with her. Her new favorite thing is feeding him food off her plate, either directly or dropping it on the floor. Needless to say they have become best friends!
Hallie is very smart. I know I am a little biased, but it is true. She picks up the phone (the real phone, cell phone, or her play phone) and puts it up to her head and talks (just baby talk, but it's talk). She knows how to give a "Hi 5". She loves music and often dances when she hears it. And when I say "bottle" or "are you hungry" she makes a cute little eating sound with her mouth! I know she completely understands us. There is no communication problem with this baby!
Last night Hallie and I went to a Memphis Redbirds game. My office had group tickets. She loved it! There was so much to see and do. Her eyes were so wide and she pointed at everything. She danced to the music, waved at kids, played with a ball, and even ate a nacho (no jalapenos!).
Last week we went to the Zoo and she had a blast! She is so observant and pointed at the monkeys, jaguar, and (her favorite) the pandas. She received a stuffed panda from her cousin Mat and his finance Shelly that she just adores. She hugs it all the time.
Today we're going to get out our new pool. It's one of those blow-up types, and, if it's as big as the picture on the box, Brett and I may get in with her.
Tomorrow we are going to the Dragon Boat Festival celebration. Our local Families With Children From China (FCC) group organizes it. The Dragon Boat Festival is one of the big holidays in China, so FCC families get together each year to celebrate it with the kids. We'll take our camera, so look for new pictures in the coming days.
Well, that is about all for now. I will try to give you weekly reports on Hallie's life! It is so entertaining for us, we hope it is for you too!
# posted by JDonnals : 8:32 AM
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Life with Hallie...
...is anything but boring! She is adjusting very well, but is very active, crawling or cruising around everywhere, trying to pet the dog, playing (breaking) the remote control for the television!
Hallie is truly a great, easy-going baby. We can take her to the store or out to a restaurant and she is great. We had a good time at Kroger yesterday! She was fascinated with the checkout and laughed and clapped at the clerk. Today we went to Lowe's to but Daddy a new hose for our yard and she loved looking and pointing at the flowers. Brett and I took her to lunch then to a playground. She loves the swing and the slide. We are thinking of building a swing set in our backyard for her after seeing her reaction.
She is eating very well. She is still on formula, but loves canned vegetables, especially carrots and green beans! She is eating some baby foods, like sweet potatoes and turkey and chicken and broccoli. She loves Cheerios, bananas, crackers, and the breadsticks at the Movie and Pizza place on Mud Island (the girls there love her, too!). She still won't drink juice, but I figure between the veggies, Cheerios, and formula she is getting plenty of vitamins.
We are having some sleeping issues. She still wakes up about two times each night crying. One of us goes up to her room, calms her down and she usually goes back to sleep. (Oh, how I wish for a full night of uninterrupted sleep again!) She absolutely HATES taking naps. It wasn't this way when we were in China so I'm not sure what is going on. Today she fought me for more than an hour. She screamed and cried! By the time she got to sleep it was almost 4 p.m. and I had to wake her at 5:30 so she would sleep tonight! I put her down a little later than usual so I hope that helps. I have to tell my self that we have only been home for a week and a half, and really, she is doing very well considering we have uprooted her from everyone and everything she has ever known, flown her to the other side of the world, introduced her to a whole new life that includes a dog and a cat and no other children (there were about 50 other children at the orphanage).
I finally figured out how to take a shower. I either jump in as fast as I can while she naps or stick her in the Jeep walker and push it into the bathroom. She finds the later only interesting for about 3 minutes, then starts to get fussy, so I have to hurry! But at least I can face the world with clean hair! Monday was the first day with just the two of us by ourselves (Brett was at work and my parents left Saturday). It was harder than I thought it would be. I'm still not sure how I'm going to get her ready for day care and myself ready for work by myself! But Brett is on the early morning shift for now so I have to find a way to make it work!
Well, this is one of the rare chances I get these days to sit at the computer for more than 5 minutes. I will try to post messages more regularly once we get more used to Hallie and she gets more used to us!
Hallie is truly a great, easy-going baby. We can take her to the store or out to a restaurant and she is great. We had a good time at Kroger yesterday! She was fascinated with the checkout and laughed and clapped at the clerk. Today we went to Lowe's to but Daddy a new hose for our yard and she loved looking and pointing at the flowers. Brett and I took her to lunch then to a playground. She loves the swing and the slide. We are thinking of building a swing set in our backyard for her after seeing her reaction.
She is eating very well. She is still on formula, but loves canned vegetables, especially carrots and green beans! She is eating some baby foods, like sweet potatoes and turkey and chicken and broccoli. She loves Cheerios, bananas, crackers, and the breadsticks at the Movie and Pizza place on Mud Island (the girls there love her, too!). She still won't drink juice, but I figure between the veggies, Cheerios, and formula she is getting plenty of vitamins.
We are having some sleeping issues. She still wakes up about two times each night crying. One of us goes up to her room, calms her down and she usually goes back to sleep. (Oh, how I wish for a full night of uninterrupted sleep again!) She absolutely HATES taking naps. It wasn't this way when we were in China so I'm not sure what is going on. Today she fought me for more than an hour. She screamed and cried! By the time she got to sleep it was almost 4 p.m. and I had to wake her at 5:30 so she would sleep tonight! I put her down a little later than usual so I hope that helps. I have to tell my self that we have only been home for a week and a half, and really, she is doing very well considering we have uprooted her from everyone and everything she has ever known, flown her to the other side of the world, introduced her to a whole new life that includes a dog and a cat and no other children (there were about 50 other children at the orphanage).
I finally figured out how to take a shower. I either jump in as fast as I can while she naps or stick her in the Jeep walker and push it into the bathroom. She finds the later only interesting for about 3 minutes, then starts to get fussy, so I have to hurry! But at least I can face the world with clean hair! Monday was the first day with just the two of us by ourselves (Brett was at work and my parents left Saturday). It was harder than I thought it would be. I'm still not sure how I'm going to get her ready for day care and myself ready for work by myself! But Brett is on the early morning shift for now so I have to find a way to make it work!
Well, this is one of the rare chances I get these days to sit at the computer for more than 5 minutes. I will try to post messages more regularly once we get more used to Hallie and she gets more used to us!
# posted by JDonnals : 10:02 PM
Our Great Wall travel group. Nine families with nine beautiful girls from Guangxi Province. Two other families joined us for this picture at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou.
# posted by JDonnals : 9:56 PM
Monday, June 06, 2005
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Home with Hallie
Hello everyone! Sorry for the long time between posts on this blog site. For some reason, I could not access our blog page in China! I'm not quite sure why. I could access everything else, including Google, our banks' sites, the local television stations' sites, etc. Hopefully you kept up with our journey from the Yahoo Group I created. You can still join it by clicking this link, or the link on the right that says "JOIN HALLIE'S YAHOO GROUP." That is still the easiest and best way to post pictures of our little angel.
We got home last Saturday, May 28th after an exhausting plane ride from Hong Kong to Chicago. It was worse on Brett, who was stuffed into a coach seat. I swear, there was more leg room on the small United Express jet from Chicago to Memphis than on the 747!
We had a great time in China. Hallie is absolutely beautiful. She is a very happy, fun baby. I may be a little biased, but she is also very smart! She imitates us all of the time. You show her how to do something, and she soon can do it herself. She laughs all of the time. We have truly been blessed!
We received Hallie on the afternoon of May 16th. She screamed and cried when they handed her to me. Such a scared little baby. As soon as I put her in Brett's arms she stopped! For then next two days she clung to Brett. She let me feed her and play with her, but if Brett walked out of the room, she cried. She has come a long way in these past three weeks.
Nanning was an interesting city. It is the capital of Guangxi Province, where Hallie was born. We stayed there at the Majestic Hotel for 8 days while they processed Hallie's passport. Even though the adoption was final on May 17th and we were her legal parents, she had to get a passport so she could get into the United States. Nanning reminded me of Hawaii. Very green and lush, tropical and hot! The city is bustling 24-hours a day. Many, many people on bicycles and scooters. We did a little site seeing, but Hallie was not feeling well so we missed some of the tours. We stayed in the hotel and took care of her. She had a bad cold, I think from the stress and the air conditioning, which she probably was not used to. She got better before we left Nanning for Guangzhou.
In Guangzhou, we stayed at the White Swan Hotel. It is VERY nice--like a resort! The small section of the city where we stayed is called Shamian Island. It is where the U.S. Consulate is located. This was the final step on our journey, where Hallie received a visa to return to the United States. We took an oath there and when we landed at our port of entry, Chicago, she officially became a U.S. citizen. Every American who adopts a Chinese child must go to the Consulate in Guangzhou to bring the child back to the U.S. Because of this, it processes more U.S. Immigrant Visas than any other U.S. Consulate in the world. And, because of this, at any given time, there are hundreds of Americans on Shamian Island. There are stores and restaurants there that cater to the Americans, it has almost become a small industry. We enjoyed our stay there very much.
We started our trip in Beijing, before going to Nanning to get Hallie. It was amazing! There is construction EVERYWHERE! And I mean huge skyrise buildings! It is a huge city, with millions of people, cars and buildings. The city is preparing for the Summer Olympics in 2008. We were able to visit many fascinating places like the Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City. We also drove outside of the city to visit the Great Wall. Brett made it farther than I did--it is quite a hike to the top! It was nice to see all of these things so someday we can tell Hallie all about visiting China's capital.
As you can see, we had a great trip. We have been home one week today. Hallie is adjusting very well. She is finally on the U.S. time schedule. For the first few nights she was up wanting to play at midnight. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep. I am very lucky that my parents came down to help us out for the first few days. It really saved me! Hallie likes the dog and cat, but they aren't too sure about her yet. The dog is friendlier than the cat, but he still gets scared when she cries, which isn't too often, fortunately. She also loves her Jeep walker which is a nice place to put her when I need to get something done. She is almost walking on her own, I think in a few weeks she'll be all over the place!
My parents, Brett's mom and two sisters met us at the airport. It was a nice homecoming. The next day we had a birthday party for Hallie with a cake and presents! We missed her first birthday by a few weeks (April 28, 2004) but I still wanted her to have a party. It was great fun watching her dig into her cake (I'm sure it was her first one ever). This baby has had so many first time experiences in the past three weeks, and she is doing great!
Brett went back to work last Wednesday. He is back on the morning shift, so he has to be to work at 4 a.m. I will go back in July, but will be doing some work from home in the meantime. I plan on spending the time getting to know our daughter a little better and experiencing all the joys of motherhood. We'll keep you updated!
We got home last Saturday, May 28th after an exhausting plane ride from Hong Kong to Chicago. It was worse on Brett, who was stuffed into a coach seat. I swear, there was more leg room on the small United Express jet from Chicago to Memphis than on the 747!
We had a great time in China. Hallie is absolutely beautiful. She is a very happy, fun baby. I may be a little biased, but she is also very smart! She imitates us all of the time. You show her how to do something, and she soon can do it herself. She laughs all of the time. We have truly been blessed!
We received Hallie on the afternoon of May 16th. She screamed and cried when they handed her to me. Such a scared little baby. As soon as I put her in Brett's arms she stopped! For then next two days she clung to Brett. She let me feed her and play with her, but if Brett walked out of the room, she cried. She has come a long way in these past three weeks.
Nanning was an interesting city. It is the capital of Guangxi Province, where Hallie was born. We stayed there at the Majestic Hotel for 8 days while they processed Hallie's passport. Even though the adoption was final on May 17th and we were her legal parents, she had to get a passport so she could get into the United States. Nanning reminded me of Hawaii. Very green and lush, tropical and hot! The city is bustling 24-hours a day. Many, many people on bicycles and scooters. We did a little site seeing, but Hallie was not feeling well so we missed some of the tours. We stayed in the hotel and took care of her. She had a bad cold, I think from the stress and the air conditioning, which she probably was not used to. She got better before we left Nanning for Guangzhou.
In Guangzhou, we stayed at the White Swan Hotel. It is VERY nice--like a resort! The small section of the city where we stayed is called Shamian Island. It is where the U.S. Consulate is located. This was the final step on our journey, where Hallie received a visa to return to the United States. We took an oath there and when we landed at our port of entry, Chicago, she officially became a U.S. citizen. Every American who adopts a Chinese child must go to the Consulate in Guangzhou to bring the child back to the U.S. Because of this, it processes more U.S. Immigrant Visas than any other U.S. Consulate in the world. And, because of this, at any given time, there are hundreds of Americans on Shamian Island. There are stores and restaurants there that cater to the Americans, it has almost become a small industry. We enjoyed our stay there very much.
We started our trip in Beijing, before going to Nanning to get Hallie. It was amazing! There is construction EVERYWHERE! And I mean huge skyrise buildings! It is a huge city, with millions of people, cars and buildings. The city is preparing for the Summer Olympics in 2008. We were able to visit many fascinating places like the Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City. We also drove outside of the city to visit the Great Wall. Brett made it farther than I did--it is quite a hike to the top! It was nice to see all of these things so someday we can tell Hallie all about visiting China's capital.
As you can see, we had a great trip. We have been home one week today. Hallie is adjusting very well. She is finally on the U.S. time schedule. For the first few nights she was up wanting to play at midnight. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep. I am very lucky that my parents came down to help us out for the first few days. It really saved me! Hallie likes the dog and cat, but they aren't too sure about her yet. The dog is friendlier than the cat, but he still gets scared when she cries, which isn't too often, fortunately. She also loves her Jeep walker which is a nice place to put her when I need to get something done. She is almost walking on her own, I think in a few weeks she'll be all over the place!
My parents, Brett's mom and two sisters met us at the airport. It was a nice homecoming. The next day we had a birthday party for Hallie with a cake and presents! We missed her first birthday by a few weeks (April 28, 2004) but I still wanted her to have a party. It was great fun watching her dig into her cake (I'm sure it was her first one ever). This baby has had so many first time experiences in the past three weeks, and she is doing great!
Brett went back to work last Wednesday. He is back on the morning shift, so he has to be to work at 4 a.m. I will go back in July, but will be doing some work from home in the meantime. I plan on spending the time getting to know our daughter a little better and experiencing all the joys of motherhood. We'll keep you updated!
# posted by JDonnals : 11:37 AM
