Info for future travelers to China

Here are some things I thought I would pass on to others traveling to China to adopt in the future.

1. Diapers and Wipes -- Pampers and baby wipes are readily accessible in China if you ask your guide to take you to a grocery store, carrefour store or the like. They are just as good as American ones. The wipes, in fact, I found to be thicker than the US ones. The diapers, while not quite as good of quality, are certainly sufficient - they held Mia's blast anyway!

2. Food for Baby -- Jarred baby food is available but only in limited quantities and options. They just don't feed this to their babies. We found options for Mia on the buffets and even Lucy's on Shamian Island has mashed potatoes and congee if you ask for the baby menu. Most other restaurants have something you can feed the baby - we found pumpkin soup on many menus and Mia loved it!

3. Constipation - be prepared for this. We brought two small jars of prunes but that wasn't good enough. We used an herbal packet for constipation that the couple we traveled with bought in China, that didn't work. When we got back to Guangzhou, the store on the first floor in the White Swan with all the candy and such had jarred baby food and juice. The pear juice helped her out!

4. Shamian Island Restaurants - (imagine Shamian Island as a big side-sitting rectangle)

-> Cow and Bridge - supposedly a Thai restaurant -- go out the side door of the White Swan (first floor) to the right a little bit and up the first street (4th street) to the North edge of the island (North street) - the old victory hotel is on the right (a beige 3-4 story hotel) turn right onto North street and it is right around the corner with blue neon lights. I didn't find much on the menu I liked but my husband had sweet and sour chicken with cashew nuts or something and it was good. I had steamed chicken and while it was good, it came with the head on and there wasn't really much meat on the bones. The dipping sauces with it were excellent though.

-> Lucy's -- out the side door of WS and to the right (east on South street) down that street. Right next to the park. You can't miss it! Excellent french fries, mashed potatoes and congee for babies. hamburger ok. great atmosphere if you sit out side in the back.

-> La Dolce Vita -- Italian... EXCELLENT PIZZA AND BREADSTICKS!!! on the east side of the rectangle shaped island (1st street). pumpkin soup for babies.

5. Take time to walk through Shamian Island. It's parks are beautful and peaceful. Don't be scared of it. It's a wonderful place

6. The "place's"

-> Linna's place - out the side door of the WS and directly to the right. The first one you see. There is a wonderful girl there, didn't catch her name, but she dropped out of school in the 8th grade and taught herself English. Her English is flawless and hardly has an accent. She is so nice and not very pushy at all. You can borrow a stroller from there for free and it is great to be able to just run it back right there at the end of your stay!

-> Sherry's place - best squeaky shoe selection and pricing on the island! Out right the side door of the WS to the first street (Shamian 4th street) and go north (left). Go up about one block to the far side of the "main street park block" in between the streets and turn left. (starbucks is to the right) You will find the Gift from China shop, you will see an Art 64 sign and then Sherry's place. You have to sep up into the building and then the shop is on the right inside the building door. The girl's here are very nice. http://www.sherrymama.com

-> Jenny's place -- same spot as Sherry's place but left inside the building door instead of right.

-> Susan's place -- located just north of the WS between 4th and 5th streets. skip it. lots of junk there!

**The further you wander from your hotel the better deals and better stores you will find so be adventurous! We weren't at first and I am so glad we did!

7. Chinese Medical Science Massage on Shamian Island
Oh my you have to go here to get a 90 minute massage for $10 USD. Tell them you want the foot and back massage. Go out the side door of the WS and go North up the first street to the top of the rectangle-shaped island where the old victory hotel is and turn left. Go down about 3 blocks or so to the north-west (top left) corner of the island. There is a set of stores with big red lanterns hanging. The lights to the massage place are neon blue at night above the door. Go in and there is a desk beside a staircase. That is where you tell them what you want. It is an awesome experience.. they soak your feet in a big wooden barrel of hot brown water, give you tea and orange slices, soothe your feet with piping hot towels and the massage is wonderful for an aching baby-carrying back!!!

8. What to Wear -- No matter what other people say, take some dressier clothes. The Chinese dress very nicely. All the time. We felt very underdressed everywhere we went in our jeans and sweatshirts/t-shirts. The Chinese are always wearing slacks, high heels, suits, etc. Even when the Chinese have on jeans they are designer looking jeans. And they typically wear black or navy or dark grey clothing.

9. Don't count on being able to use your credit card. We took all our money in cash and we are so glad we did. The couple traveling with us planned to use their credit card a lot and a lot of places would not take it. They had to have money wired to them. Don't feel scared of having all that money with you. We had a money belt under our clothes that we wore. We were only asked to show it once through all the security we went through and were never asked to remove it, just asked what it was. When you get to your hotel you can put your money in the safe in your room.

10. Chinese Yuan. You will see big bills and little bills. The little ones are like change. A little bill with a 1 on it is like 10 cents. A little bill with a 5 on it is like a 50 cent piece. you can compare them to our dimes and 50-cent pieces. There are also silver coins with a 1 or 5 on them that are comparable to the big 1 and 5 bills. We were confused about these at first! We also came across two different colors and styles of 1 yuan bills. A green one and a purple one but they are the same.

11. Don't be afraid to negotiate the price in the "place" shops on the island. Some places will not be willing to negotiate but some expect it. One shop owner even said to us "This is China you have to negotiate!!!"

12. Always carry smaller yuan bills with you to tip your drivers or bell boys or to pay your taxi! Our guide typically told us 5 yuan per person. Longer trips we were told to tip 10 yuan per person. We traveled in a group of 5 adults. Taxi drivers you do not tip though.

13. At your hotel you can get a little card that says "take me to the ____ hotel" carry this with you at all times just in case! you can give it to your taxi driver or show it to someone if you get lost!

14. a small pocket calculator would have been nice because I cannot divide by 7's very easily! LOL

15. Hair dryers were in each hotel we stayed in and they were sufficient.

16. Internet -- both hotels we stayed in had internet access. In Changsha it was free. At the WS it was 50 yuan per hour (not quite sure about that price???), 100 yuan per day, 300 yuan per week. We paid for the week and it was well worth it. Internet is available in the business office but it costs quite a bit more money. You pay for every 15 minutes of use.

17. Calling Home - Get skype on your computer and the computers of all your family members! It was absolutely priceless for calling home! Our family members loved seeing Mia every day on the web cam!

18. Would I lug my laptop to China again??? HECK YEA!

19. Our guide rented us a phone from somewhere. We paid $15 for two weeks and then a fee per minute that we used. We didn't pay squat for the minutes. It was nice to be able to be in contact with our guide when he wasn't around and we needed him and to call home. We could have used our regular cell phones but it would have been around $2.50 per minute.

20. Tours --

--> (Lianhua) Lotus Mountain -- definitely worth it! About an hour drive there in the Panyu district but breathtakingly beautiful
--> 6 Banyan Tree Temple -- amazing, beautiful and peaceful. Loved it
--> Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall-- The George Wahington of China. glad we saw it but not as amazing as the other two attractions were.
--> Porcelain Factory -- not a well known site - one of our cab drivers got lost taking the other couple there. Definitely worth the trip! The address I have is54-7 South Street Shamian.
--> XiaJiu Lu Pediestian Street - a great shopping district for clothes, etc. ...don't eat the street food here! made my husband sick! LOL

21. Exchanging Money -- you can do this at the WS hotel or if you go out the side door of the WS, there is a Bank just to the right. That is where we exchanged our money for the orphangage fee.

USA, Baby!

We're home! Here is a picture of Mia before taking off while waiting in Korea and just after landing in Chicago, where she became an American citizen. I have to say that going through immigration and customs was much easier than I thought it was going to be. We just asked "Where do we go for international adoptions?" And they whisked us to the front of a line and gave us the special treatment from there on, including not even going through the baggage xray machine line! It was very nice! :)

Mia did very well on all the flights, including the 13 hour one from Korea to Chicago. She was a little fussy but nothing to bad! We finally pulled into home and got situated around 2 am. She is making somewhat of a rough transition to a new surrounding and time zone! She has been a really good baby but getting her to sleep is rough on both of us! She fights it every step of the way. She will fall asleep in your arms and stay asleep for a long time but the second you lay her in her crib or on a bed of any kind, she starts crying. Last night we went to bed at about 2:30 and she woke up every 45 minutes until about 5:15 and I gave her some Motrin because she is teething and she was crying like she didn't feel good. She has one little tooth on the top that just popped out within the last two days. Her first tooth! So after getting that Motrin she then slept until about 8:00 this morning. She has been up almost all day since then except for about a 2 hour nap.

Today we went to the doctor. We scheduled an appt before we left for tomorrow but the doctor had to change so we saw a different doctor today. The doctor's dad actually lives in China! She was very nice. We took an oath at the US consulate that we would have her vaccinated within 30 days of having her and because we don't know the validity of her shot record they gave us, she got another dose today. She was not very happy with those two mean ladies!!!!! (I would not have their job for nothing... making babies cry!) She weighed 14.9 lbs. Which is funny because her growth report from January said she weighed 16.5 lbs then. Guess that wasn't right! And she is 26.5 inches long. She is wearing 3-6 month clothes right now, except for those sleepers with the feet in them, she is wearing 6-9 month in those but she is almost too long for them. They are baggy on her but her little toes scrunch a little bit at the bottom!

She is developing more and more each day. When we first got her she couldn't sit up on her own but now she can sit alone for a while and then falls over after a while or when she gets too excited! She isn't pushing up to crawl yet but she is getting closer to pushing up to hands and knees. She isn't yet holding her own bottle but will put her hands on it when feeding. She hasn't learned how to put things in her mouth, other than her little fingers or her shirt or my shirt but we are working on it. I have been encouraging her to pick up Gerber puffs and then I move her hand to her mouth. She's getting the hang of it. I have been doing the same with her little teething toys. One day I will regret I taught her to put things in her mouth I am sure!!!!!

We are so very in love with this little girl and still can't believe she is all ours! She is such a sweet little thing and we couldn't be happier!!!!

This post is dedicated to Julia who called to say everyone was freaked out that I hadn't posted since Monday!!!!! Glad everyone is worried about us! We are fine! Just extremely busy being Mom and Dad!!!

Life is good!

Medical Exam and Barbie!

Today was Mia's medical exam. They said she was healthy! We don't know how much she weighs because we were too busy taking pics and videos! LOL. After we got done and had left I thought "I wonder how much she weighed!" too bad I didn't think of it while we were there!!! duh! (but after looking through the pictures I saw it on the scale in the picture!!! 6.9 kg. That's 15.2 lbs.)
Before we went there we had to get a picture taken of her and the guy with the camera came at her like 'kung fu camera'! She had just woken up and he totally freaked her out. She started screaming bloody murder! So her picture is just cute as can be, tears and all! I included some pics from the day!
There are two pictures of wedding photo shoots. Two different brides, two different dress styles! They were both gorgeous!!! There are also some pictures of a park we walked through on the way back to the hotel from the medical exam. There were tons of people doing tai chi, karate, mah jong, hackey sack :), singing, playing musical instruments, etc. It was really neat! AND a picture of our Coming Home Barbie!!!! She is only given out to adoptive couples staying at the White Swan Hotel. I was so excited to come back to the hotel room today and find her sitting on the counter!!!!!!!

My baby

I know this is all you really come here for so I will start with this! Look how long her eyelashes are in the one picture. She's so amazing!

Today we went to an embroidery shop. Changsha is known for its embroidery. It was quite amazing to watch these women stitching away with their needle and thread. All the items here were handmade in this shop. We bought an awesome black and white cherry blossom wall hanging. We will have to get it framed when we get home. We had to have them remove the frame for us so we could travel with it.. boy was that a chore for them to remove the frame. I wish we could have kept the frame as it was really neat but it wouldn't travel! It's awesome! We also bought a little circular one on a stand that you can view from either side. They are pretty neat!

mia's Here!

Here is our beautiful girl. She hasn't cried once, except for about 15 seconds during a bath.... We are learning how to do many things as new parents and she has been very patient with us! LOL
She is very tiny and absolutely adorable! I am in total awe of her. She has melted our hearts already! These are the pics of our day including one from dinner where she has food in her mouth laughing! It was so great to hear her giggle! The last picture is the other couple we are here with and their daughter Sophie. The Chinese woman in the one picture is the Orpanage director. She was so sweet.

Changsha!

We made it to Changsha! Tomorrow we get Mia! I can't believe it! Changsha is a very different city than Guangzhou. It certainly isn't as clean! We drove by some very poor areas on the way to our hotel which is in the heart of the city. The Dolton hotel is amazing! Wow! When we got here the first thing I noticed (that gave me chills) was the baby crib in the room!!!! We are on the 30th floor. There are 42 altogether. Quite scary to look out the window! and the window really opens! and there is NO screen on it! Mia wont be going near that! Brian just went down to check out the massage place. 70 minutes for about $10. Not quite like Riversong that I go to at home! LOL.
Here are some of the first pictures we took of Changsha. Some are from the van we took from the airport to our hotel so there is a glare from the dirty windows! The first two are the view from our hotel window. The last three are of the main lobby to the hotel! Marble everywhere!

Video from the Porcelain factory yesterday (scroll down to March 3rd date to pause music to listen to the video. Although it is just me entertaining the lady's questions in the store! a lot of "mmm-hmmm" and "wow!" comments!!! LOL)

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

I wanted to say a special Hello to Mrs. Maples' class at Blair Oaks who are following along on our journey!!!!

And HELLO to all the students and staff at New Bloomfield Schools!!!!

Korea!

We made it to Korea! Waiting to fly to Guangzhou! Whew was that 14 hour flight a doozie!!!!

We'll update when we can!!!

Sitting here with another couple we met online! How fun is this???? Can't wait to get to China!

6 sleeps

OMG... Only 6 more sleeps until we head to China!!!!!!!!!!!!

TA Baby!

Our TA has arrived safely!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Travel plans to come.......