SORRY THIS IS LATE

Well I have not been on here a while and Blogger has totally changed it's format arghhhh.  Anyway, Shea has been home 2 weeks and is still doing well.  We all adore her.  We had lunch today with our dear friends the Kovachs who have Ting who is now 11 and came home last year and little Anna who is 4 and just a total love.  Our lovely neighbors from NJ left today and moved back boo hoo.  We are very sad as they were awesome and we were very close.  I do not blame them one bit though, they have no family here and all their friends are back up there.  I miss NYC a lot but unless you have a ton of money you really can't raise a family well there.  We Skype everyday with my dad and he cannot wait to come visit but air fare is astronomical and I even checked in the fall and it was rocket high prices so we are not sure when he will come.  Anyway, here is a video of the girls in the car while daddy is driving - so no I am not holding the Iphone and driving at the same time :-)  I will write more later but isn't this just the cutest video?  Poor Molly has bug bites all over her face.

WE MADE IT

This is our wonderful friend Mia who met us at our layover in Chicago with these beautiful signs.  Mia and Shea have not seen each other for 8 months.  It was a wonderful reunion even if it was too short.  Aren't these signs just lovely.  I am going to back track a tad now.  We caught the train to HK and it was quite pleasant.  I am horrid though as I was laughing at these two young blokes sat behind the girls - they must have been brothers and if you think 'Buddy Love - Jerry Lewis Nutty professor teeth' you will get the picture.  They both had the same buck and yellow teeth.  Then I felt so guilty thinking God is going to punish me for making fun but on a better note I at least know I am no oil painting and I am sure people may poke fun at me on the quiet.  The hotel in HK nice BUT very noisy and expensive and did not even include breakfast PLUS they wanted you to pay for WiFi WHAT!!!!!!!  I could hear the guy sneezing one side and the couple with their infant the other side so I was not happy.  Still I managed to get a little sleep considering and the girls crashed as soon as their heads hit the pillows.  The flight to Chicago left on time as was actually OK as far as 14 hour flights go ugh.  I of course was scared the whole way but felt I was owed at least one nice smooth flight.  Shea did great, Molly napped for some of it but I did not.  We did have to collect our bags the other end, do immigration since we were bringing a foreign born child in and then try to find US Airways check it which was no where near us and with all the luggage it was a nightmare.  Anyway we found Julie, Mia and co who were waiting near where we had to go and we spent about 3 hours with them.  They had been to Ikea and had these really delicious cinnamon buns that I scoffed.  It was so lovely having someone come to see us - they had driven 5 hours to come as well, now if that isn't a friend what is?  Our next flight was to home YAY and was supposed to be 2 hours but was only 1.5 yippppeeeee and a tad bumpy but still nothing compares to the bloody flight to BJ on day one.  I will never forget that.  There we were met by our friends the Murphys who are also adoptive parents to an amazing gal from China but she is 16 now and came as a baby like Molly.  Plus of course daddy finally got to see his two girls.  Right now it is day 3 of being home and day 16 of having Shea and even though this may be the honeymoon period, everything is just wonderful.  She is so sweet and funny and smart.  She does not really like our food much so chef daddy whipped her up some Bok Choy spicy noodle soup that she really liked.  I am not a good cook even though I am the one who does 95% of it so I think I am in trouble when he goes back to work on Weds and of course I do too albeit from home. Anyhoo, I will post more pics later since I have them all on my other laptop.

ALMOST HOME

Well tomorrow we leave for Hong Kong, stay one night then fly to Chicago in the morning Saturday (Fri night EST) and have a 4 hour lay over where we will hang out with my darling friend Julie and her DD Mia. They are driving 4 hours up from where they live in IL, spending Fri night just so they can come see us at the airport for 4 hours on Saturday.  It will be a lovely reunion for Shea and Mia, the first of many to come we hope.  I am soooooo dreading the next 2 flights thanks to the horrid ones we had prior.  I pray they will be smooth, quick and safe.  At this point I am really ready to come home as I have already said.  I want to sleep in my own bed and get the girls in to a normal routine.  I wonder if Shea thinks we eat out every day LOL. 

The weather today was miserable, rainy and thundery but still muggy. We had the swearing in ceremony at the US Consulate and hopefully we should get her visa tomorrow at 3. Simon, our guide, submitted the paperwork today that they wanted to all should be well. We met another couple there who were adopting a 13 year old girl who was SUPER sweet. I told Shea to get her QQ information so they cann stay in touch. QQ is like the Chinese FB. I got the parents info, they were really nice. They are from Texas. We were going to the zoo after but decided to wait and see how the weather panned out. We did go around 2pm with another family called The Walkers who are with our agency and I knew Sandra since we had bonded on RQ before. Their son, Bret is hysterical. He is the happiest little thing and repeats everything you say. I just love him, he is 3 years old. I know my husband would adore him. But I think my paper tubes are tied now ;-) So we got the subway to the zoo, it was only 2 stops. Let me tell you the subway was lovely (as far as subways go). It was totally organized, clean, safe and even had a tv on the carriage with soccer on. The map reminded me a lot of the London underground. They Chinese have a great idea, they have a huge glass panel with doors seperating you and the train so no one can fall on the tracks. The zoo was nice, however me being the animal rights one I was not so please with the way some of the animals were kept. It was very unnatural and you could tell they were bored crapless. For example, the big cats were in really small concrete areas with no grass or anything and all they did was pace. That was really heartbreaking. Some of the animals, however, had great areas. I think some of the elephants were stressed too but the monkeys and giraffes seemed super happy. I did take a lot of pics but they did not come out so good so I shall just post a few. Of course the highlight was seeing the 2 pandas.

THESE POOR WOLVES WERE BORED MINDLESS

THE GZ SUBWAY SYSTEM

I HAVE SAID IT BEFORE.....

........and I am saying it again.  It saddens me a little when I see who has not paid any attention (family members) to my blog nor have they contacted my husband to see if all is well with us.  That saying blood is thicker than water is so not true and I have known this for a long time.  Same as you can have children who are not of your flesh you can have friends who are more like family than your own bio family.  It amazes me how people forget all you did for them when they first had thier children.  It angers me even more when people to not treat the adoption of a child the same as giving birth.  So yeah she is 12 and I didn't expect a baby shower but she darn well better get gifts as you know I will moan on here LOL.  Some of my friends though have been awesome!  Some are educated enough to know and have been rocks through this whole process -you know who you are and I love you endlessly for this. Well I just felt the need to get up at 3AM to write this.  Love you guys.

SORRY, BEEN HAVING VPN ISSUES

VPN is the software you have to download and subscribe to that enables you to access FB and Blogger whilst in China since those sites (and some others) are forbidden by the government. Everything is just peachy with the girls (praise God). We opted out of 2 group events yesterday and today so that we can just relax. It is way too much for the girls all this rushing around. Today we just hung out in the hotel room, we went to a local Chinese fast food place for dinner that is just around the corner - Shea had to order for me and I got white rice and a plate of Bok Choy. They had Fried bums on the menu ROFL so I had to take a picture of that for you (see below).

One little glitch is that Simon our guide told me today that they screwed up Shea's paperwork in Xi'An (oh joy) they put the wrong dates on it with regard to her history and did not put anything about what happened to her the first 10 years of her life - the US Consulate wants it all fixed. Simon is trying to get it sorted. So the twonks in Xi'an charged me extra money since my husband was not there but screwed up all the paperwork anyway. Charming!

Well I am starting to get homesick now, I love it here and I will cry when we leave BUT I miss my husband and our life and of course my doggies and cats. I am getting fed up with living out of a suitcase (did I write that already?) and eating out all the time plus the language barrier. We ended up at a Spanish restaurant last night and I did not like it and neither did Shea - it was NOT cheap either. I can't wait to get home and back into a normal routine.

Tomorrow we meet Simon early and head to the American Consulate for Shea's swearing in ceremony - they hopefully she will get her visa on Friday so we can head to Hong Kong for the night and leave for the USA on Saturday morning. We are meeting my beloved Julie and her darling Mia at O'Hare airport during our layover - I have mentioned Mia many times; she is from Shea's orphanage. Here are some new pics anyway.

HA HA HA

 IN THE GARDEN WHERE WE HAVE BREAKFAST IN THE MORNING

THE FISH IN THE POND WHERE WE HAVE BREAKFAST

VIEW FROM OUR HOTEL WINDOW IN GZ

THESE ARE CHICKEN FEET - GROSS I KNOW

MISSING DADDY AND THE DOGS

The famous 5 goats statue in Guang Zhou

Shea's TB test was neg YAY however she did get violently sick due to motion sickness today poor thing.  We went to the island today to do some shopping but it was very rushed and I did not get the chops I wanted sadly.  I got the girls some dresses, a couple of place mats with matching chopsticks sets, a carving type of thing in English and Chinese of Pauls first letter to the Corinthians which was read at our wedding.  Oh and Shea got some sandals finally - well nice flip flops.  Shea is playing with my Ipod touch and todays pics are on it so I will have to post some different ones and add those later.  We all miss daddy and the dogs and I am guessing the way Shea reacts when he is on Skype she can't wait to see him either.  I do love it here though I really do and I will cry when we leave just like last time but I am kinda fed up with living out of a suitcase and being rushed here there and everywhere.  I am so dreading the flight back UGH!!!!  We are all tired and although I don't miss work I miss my daily routine.  Oh Yesterday we went to the Pearl and Jade market, I got earrings made for the girls and bought a pair for myself - it cost about $40 in total.  Then we went to a DVD/CD store and I was in heaven.  I got the girls 9 DVD's and one for my friends girl Mia who is Shea's friend and I got a Chinese cd of a singer I saw on MTV.  The DVD's have Mandarin subtitles.

SHE IS SOMETHING ELSE

FEEDING THE FISH IN A XI'AN PARK

SHEA'S FIRST EVER FLIGHT

HAVING HER MEDICAL

HAVING HER SHOTS :-(

OUTSIDE THE LIBRARY IN GZ

OUTSIDE THE GARDEN HOTEL IN GZ

We made it to GZ but had yet another bumpy flight and I was panicking - she did great and Molly slept.  I have had issues getting on here and FB so I may not update often. I was kinda sad leaving Xi'an but GZ truly is beautiful and clean and very westernized.  We did not get to the hotel till about 11:30 and we were all shattered.  I got up just before 7 and skyped with my DH and then Molly came over to chat with daddy and then Shea got up.  She is so cute when she says 'Hi daddy' oh and she says 'Hello' with a total English accent - it is so funny - my friend Dawn will be so proud.  The Garden Hotel is as Ritzy as it gets.  It is HUGE and very posh but I really don't care about all that stuff - sure it is nice but so long as I am somewhere clean and safe and it has all the mod cons I don't care where I stay.  At $189/night I could think of other ways to spend that.  Our agency gave us no choice though, it was The Garden or nothing.  The breakfast buffet is very very extensive.  Today Shea had her medical and it was sickening for me to watch.  They made her have 5 shots, MMR, Varicella, TP, Hep B and the influenza.  I argued the influenza claiming it is not flu season but they said since it is till there she had to have it!  I won the argument on Polio though and she was waived for that.  Then she had the TB needle too - I cried and she got up and pulled a tissue from her bag to wipe away MY tears!!!  She was getting all the shots and she comforted me....something wrong here.  Our guide, Simon, said how much he likes her personality.  Everywhere you look there are people with babies or really young kids - I have not seen anyone else with an older kid.  I wondered what she thought or if she had noticed.  I asked Simon to ask her and to explain to her that we too could have adopted any one of those babies but we chose her - we saw her and knew she was our child.  She smiled and said 'Thank you mummy' awwwwwwwww she is the best!  We then went to lunch as some Chinese fast food place where I had steamed rice and a side of Bok Choy (yummmmmm) the girls had noodles.  Then we came back to the hotel, Shea played on the PC all afternoon IMing with friends and watching Chinese stuff.  She was very happy.  Molly played on the Ipod touch and I napped yeeehawwww life is good.  We Skype with daddy every day and every other day or so with my dad.