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
