Day seven and eight with Ella. Yesterday started early. We had a 7:30 flight from Inner Mongolia to Guangzhou so we had to be up at 4:00. The flight was about 3 hours and she did pretty good. Hopefully that's a good indication for our flight home. We really like it here. The hotel is huge. I've seen pictures of it on their website but I didn't expect so many restaurants and shops inside the lower level. And everyone here speaks ENGLISH. Thank goodness. I feel like we are back in civiliazation. There are lots of shops just as you step outside the door on the side entrance. We shopped some yesterday and ate at Lucy's Bar and Grill. The boys were so excited that they had hamburgers and Mexican food on the menu. We ordered a grilled cheese sandwich for Ella and she at almost all of it. She really liked the french fries with ketchup but her favorite was the garnish lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. She really likes vegetables and fruit. At least I have one healthy eater in our family.

It was our 22nd anniversary yesterday but it was so hectic we hardly realized it. The beds here are little smaller than the last hotel so we are really cramped. They had a baby bed set up in here when we arrived but she won't have any part of that so we sent it back.

Today we went to see the Chen Family Academy. It was really interesting. It was built originally by the Chen family to house their ancestors to come to Guangzhou to study for the Imperial examination to become a high-ranking government official. Then we went to a "mall" (sort of) to shop for baby. I found her some cute white and pink shoes. I also found the most adorable pair of black and white shoes but they didn't have her size. I should have bought the bigger ones and she probably could have worn them next year but I want to save my money for other things. I want to buy her a traditional chinese outfit. I saw lots of them yesterday but I couldn't decide on a color. They aren't expensive, only around $3.50 so I may but a couple of different colors. I haven't found the type of silk I was looking for to make her baptism dress yet. I'm thinking I may get one of the traditional dresses in white and use that.

She is naping now and we have free time for the rest of the day so I may just nap too. Take it when you can get it, I say.

I got her "Going home Barbie" today. It was on the desk when we came back from our outing this morning. She is so cute. I wish there was a choice of hair color for the Mommy. She's really blonde but the baby is too cute. There is a playroom downstairs that I want to bring her to this afternoon. It is provided by Mattel as well. Cool idea.

Well, I have some individual emails to answer so I will write more tomorrow.

Priscella

Day six with Ella. We visited a museum today. There was a traveling exhibit of National Treasures that is leaving tomorrow so we just were able to see it. It was really interesting. Got lots of good pictures. She was so good the whole time. We were there about three hours and she never cried or even got irritable. What an angel.

We also stopped by KFC again. Michael must think all we think about is food. It was so good. We got it to go and ate it in the room. You should have seen us. We were like a bunch of animals at feeding time. This time we got two buckets and it still wasn't enough.

We leave Inner Mongolia tomorrow at 7:20 so we have to be downstairs in the lobby at 5:30. Not a problem for us since we go to sleep early and wake up early. I think the flight is 3 hours so we will get a taste of how Ella will do on an airplane.

Guangzhou has a lot of shops within walking distance from the hotel and is where everyone gets their souvenirs. If anyone wants something specific, email me at elad_snrub@yahoo.com and I'll try to get it for you if we have room in the suitcases to bring it all home. I've been looking forward to that part of the trip. You all know how much I love to shop. I want to make a list tomorrow on the plane of what I want to buy for Ella. This will be fun.

She's eating an Oreo right now and loving it. She likes the center part the best. It's so much fun watching her experience things she never has had the change to experience before. What American baby hasn't had an Oreo? I know you don't miss what you've never had, but these things sure makes life fun. I love her so much.

Day five with Ella. Things are definitely getting better. She will now let me change her diaper and change her clothes without a fight. She isn't potty trained as we were told when she came here. Maybe she is "squatty trained" but she's not potty trained. She will let me feed her if Dale is touching her. We have been playing some today and I think the bonding process between us is beginning. It seems as though she thinks she would be betraying her foster mother if she accepts me as her new Mommy because every time she looks at me she starts crying for her Ma-Ma and De-De which is her little brother. Every now and then she says Lao-Lao which is her grandmother. She must miss them so much. I can't imagine being ripped from their home and never seeing them again. Part of me feels it's wrong. I know she will be better off with us but it still seems wrong to take her from everything she knows. When we are outside she scans all around as if she is trying to find her mother's face in the crowded city. I wish we could have met them. I want to know where she lived. Where she slept. Where she ate. I want to know everything about her before we leave here. A part of her will forever be left behind.

Egg rolls and fried rice. Where are all the egg rolls and fried rice? I haven't seen any egg rolls yet and they are my favorite.

We missed the lunch buffet so we had to wait until 6:00 pm to eat. They are all beginning to know us down in the restaurant. The chef came out to meet us when we walked in and watched us lift all the lids to the different dishes on the buffet and asked if we were looking for the "spaghetti with tomatoes" we had last night and we said "yes". He soon returned with a huge plate of spaghetti for us. The boys devoured it and so I asked if there was fried rice anywhere and just as quickly as he brought the spaghetti he returned with a plate of fried rice. I guess since this is a "western restaurant" (not as western as we would like it to be) there isn't even soy sauce on the tables so he brought me a bowl of it for my rice. "To-go boxes" seem to lose something in translation. He brought me out a plastic bag and dumped the rice off the plate into it for me to bring to Dale. I'm posting a picture of him eating it straight out of the bag.

Tomorrow we go to a museum. It's the largest one in Inner Mongolia. Getting out of this room for anything will be a treat for us all. We've been cooped up in here for two days and we are stir crazy. It's 7:00 and that's become our new bedtime so I'll write more tomorrow.

Love to all,
Priscella

Day four with Ella. Today we signed more papers to get her passport. We should get it tomorrow. Ella and I went with Michael to the immigration office to prove that I was the one adopting her. Not sure what that really proved. Just another hoop jumped through out of many.

I think things are getting better between she and I. She will now let me dress her without fighting me and I bathed her tonight. Dale still had to be in the room but she didn't fight me. She didn't enjoy it as much as she has the other times. Maybe she's really tired. She wouldn't even sit in the water.

Tonight Logan, Noah and I went to eat in the restaurant downstairs. Dale ate some noodles we bought at the store the other day so he stayed in the room with Ella. We actually had fun. They weren't actually open yet when we got there so we waited for them to put all the food out on the buffet one dish at a time. After a while they would pass by our table and show it to us before they put it down. We all got a lesson on how to use chopsticks. We ate all of our food with them and we were actually pretty good at it. We found some spaghetti and we ate all they put out on our first helping. They didn't put any out until they thought we were through. Huh, they don't know my boys very well. I ate some dumplings and some noodles with vegetables. I guess it's true, you really will eat anything when you truly hungry. Actually, it was pretty good.

Well, Ella is getting sleepy and I want to lay down by her. To be continued.

Priscella

Day three with Ella. She is starting to figure out she's not going back home. We found out today she was in foster care and I think that is making the transition harder on her than I thought it would be. She isn't crying as much as she was yesterday but you can tell when she thinks of her foster family and she starts crying.

She is so smart. She can already say Noah and Logan. Of course she already used ba-ba and ma-ma for her foster parents so I think she is confused. Apparently they have two children of their own. One of them must have been a younger brother because she calls out for de-de alot and Michael our guide said that is baby brother. The other one must have been an older brother because she said ge-ge pretty quickly and that is for older brother. Noah was thrilled. She is very headstrong, just like the rest of her family. She's going to fit in just fine.

Inner Mongolia is a lot different than Beijing. I don't think they are used to foreigners. No one speaks a word of English in the hotel and Michael is staying in another hotel. I'm not sure why. Maybe the agency makes him stay at a cheaper one. Who knows. When you ask for toilet paper they bring you writing paper and when you ask for a glass of ice water they bring you boiling water in a drinking glass. We still have four more days here until we leave. The boys are getting restless. Ready for American food. We had McDonalds yesterday and it didn't set well with me. Today we had KFC and it was so good I didn't care at the time. I hope I don't regret it. We haven't eaten a real meal since we at breakfast in Beijing. I feel like I've lost at least five pounds but it doesn't look like it in the pictures. They say the camera adds 10 pounds. So maybe I have lost some. Logan said he was finally full when we left KFC. I told them we wouldn't leave until everyone was full. Ella likes mashed potatoes and chicken. Ice cream too.

The driving here is horrendous. No one pays attention to lane boundaries and the people walking and riding bikes almost dare you to hit them. Our driver is really a nice man. He's this little old man who doesn't speak English but loves Ella. He keeps wanting to hold her. When she cries he talks to her in Chinese to comfort her. He is sweet. Michael is always with us unless we are in our room. We don't have anything planned for tomorrow. We are a day ahead since we got Ella a day earlier than we were supposed to.

There have been a lot of weddings at this hotel. They shoot off fireworks when someone gets married. We saw some last night and we saw two brides today. They were so pretty. I pictured them being Ella one day. So much fun to have a girl already. Her clothes I packed fit her pretty good. I didn't pack enough warm clothes, though. It is really, really cold here in the north. It will be warmer in Guangzhou, I think. I'm going to sign off and post some pictures of our little princess.

Priscella

We have Xuehong/Ella and she is everything and more of what we envisioned!!! She was so scared when she got to the hotel. She cried, and cried and cried. Poor baby. She's so beautiful and she has HAIR. I didn't expect that. Our guide met us in the lobby around 3:40 and we waited together for her. He went outside and met them and them they came in with her. We tried to comfort her but she was not happy being with these people she's never seen the likes of. We had to sign some documents and take pictures for the orphanage and then they let us take her to the room. She was still crying and Dale sung to her and rocked her by the window and she fell asleep still gasping the whole time with every breath even as she slept. I knew she would be scared and I am prepared for it to take a while for her to take to us but it breaks my heart to see her cry like that. I wish I knew how to console her.

She actually has some movement in her arm and I am thrilled to see that. She is so bundled up because it's so cold today and we didn't want to upset her anymore than she already was so maybe when she wakes up we will bathe her and see just how much movement she actually has. I think she has a great chance at really being able to use it with surgery and therapy.

It feels strange having someone hand me a baby and have her be mine. I've dreamed of this day for so long and I am sooo happy and can't put it into words just how wonderful today was.

It's going to take some time finding out all the little things about her but for now all I know is she still takes a bottle but is potty trained. (All those cute gdiapers and she won't even be able to wear them.

Well, I want to see her eyes open when she wakes up so I'm going to stare at her while she's sleeping. We've moved her from Dale to me and back to him and she's still asleep. I hope that's a good sign.

Love to all,
Priscella