Kylee see's her room for the first time.

Gotta warn you. Dad sounds like a total spazz. Whats new you ask? I was tirrrrrrrrrrrred this time!

Welcome Home Kylee!

Crashed out with Dad, it was a long long journey home.


Playing air hockey with big sister Aliya.


Basement play rooms are cool! :-)


Jumping for joy!


Home at last.


Just a few pics of when we arrived at Kylee's "forever" home.

Heading Home.

I-25 and homeward bound. Aliya is already crashed. Note the cool boufant from her Vet Clinic feild trip the day we left.


Just get the truck Dad.....we are so ready to go.


In LA Saturday morning.....can you say tired?


The famous non-recliners!


One last Victory (hotel) Dance!


I will try to bring this thing back up to speed, got a little behind traveling. Friday we had to be checked out of the Victory by 3:00pm. I had some laundry done by one of the local little shops, they all take in laundry but it's probably all done by one or two local facilities. Anyway, I laid out some clean clothes on the floor to wear for traveling. Bad mistake! During a heavy thunderstorm that afternoon the room leaked and my clean clothes were floating.:-( Luckily I had a set still in the plastic laundry wrapper and they were fine. I took the wet stuff back to Jennifer's and had them re-dry it to pick up by 5:00pm. Judy met us in the lobby of the Victory at 6:00 with a driver to take us to the airport. It was a zoo! But after some time we got through security and customs. We boarded the plane on time but found to our dismay we were screwed! lol It was the same type plane as we flew in on but had a different configuration. We had the middle row 26 on both flights but..... this one had a set of lavatories right behind our seats. Handy right? Not!!!!! These seat backs did not recline. So we got to spend 12 hours in coach with out reclining! My neck still hurts. And then to rub salt into the wound, I could see Tony about 10 rows up, in upgraded seats, Showing me his slippers, his extra room, the ability to recline and stretch etc. etc. etc. You suck Tony!! lol lol. Anyway we made it into LA on time, got our new kids paperwork turned into immigrations and made through customs. We managed, with help, to catch the wrong shuttle to our hotel but the driver was kind enough to deliver us there anyway. Lisa went and got us some burgers and we all crashed about 10:00pm. We only slept a couple hours though and everyone was awake so we left for the airport about 3:30 am. We got there plenty early but got checked in for our flight home. We had upgraded to 1st class for the flight to Denver so that was nice, breakfast and all. After a smooth flight we arrived in Denver where "Uncle Morgan" met us to welcome us back home and pick up the bag we had brought back from China for him. We loaded up the truck and made it home in about an hour. Aliya was asleep when we got here so I left her sleeping in the truck while we brought Kylee in to see her new "forever home". He face was just glowing and she was just ecstatic as she recognized things she had seen in the pictures we sent to China. She just fell all over herself when she saw her very own bedroom! Well we still have a long ways to go for these two girls to get over their sibling rivalry! I'll post more in a couple.

Thursday,a free day.

Today is a free day for us. The Harbours were planning a trip to Morgan,their daughters orphanage today. It is about 4 hours one way by bus. Unfortunately the weather was too rainy and bad towards their destination to safely make the journey. Instead they arranged to have Judy take them on another excursion. We had been promising the girls a shopping day here on the island so we stayed behind to relax and do that. The quantity of adoptions occurring in the last two years has dried up so much that the local merchants here are really struggling. They have built most of their retail business around adoptive parent and their new children. Between this and the economy, since 2006 China has been experiencing high inflation also, the little shops are struggling to make ends meet. We talked with one shop owner, Jordan whom we had met in 2005,and he told us he had been forced to move his shop to another location on the island because of the rent increases for retail space. The shop owners are great sales people and all are smart enough to praise how cute and sweet your adopted children are. "Oh your babies are so cute, where are they from and while we are talking won't you come into my shop and look around?" They all sell almost exactly the same "touristy" merchandise. It just matters how much you are able to negotiate the price. Any of the souvenir prices are negotiable, in fact you are expected to negotiate either price or additional goods for the first price quoted.

Well, tomorrow is our last day here. We have all our documentation but have to wait until Friday evening to catch a direct flight back to LAX. We will arrive there Friday evening around 7:30 pm. This before we even left in China! It is a 12 hour flight and with the time difference we gain back the day we "lost" coming over. I will try to post one more time before we pack up here tomorrow. Miss you all and are ready to be home!

More Safari pics.

Consulate Day

Yesterday in the afternoon we traveled by van to the U.S. Consulate for Kylee's visa and swearing in ceremony. The consulate used to be located here on Shamian Island but has since been moved downtown for numerous reasons. We never heard the same reason twice, even from the attache' at the consulate! It is about a 40 minute drive from the hotel. No camera's are allowed so I don't have any pictures. There were about 25 families gathered in a large waiting room and after every ones paperwork is checked the lady in charge of adoption visas came out and welcomed us and gave some information and a little speech then all of the adoptive parents raise their right hand and repeat the adoption oath and the rest is history. It only took 45 minutes or so. This time there were about 25 families, many adopting for the second time and 1 family adopting for the 3rd. Last time we were here there were around 75 families.

The Safari Park

A once in a lifetime Kodak moment!





Tuesday while Judy submitted our paperwork at the U.S. Consulate, the Harbours and us took taxicabs to a local Safari Park. I have to say this was probably the nicest zoo facility that I have ever seen, including Denver, Portland or even San Diego. The facility was beautiful, it was clean including the restrooms, and the prices were reasonable. They also had numerous circus type shows spread throughout the day. These included an Elephant Show with 4 elephants, a Bear Show with two trained bears, and a White Tiger Show that had at one point 15 white tigers in the cage at once! The bear show was very entertaining, I had never seen one of these before. I believe they were very popular in the U.S. around the turn of the century. This show had to trained bears that walked on their hind legs and looked very human. One of the bears would pass a basketball to the handler, take a pass back and go in for a jump shot! His pct. wasn't very high so the handler had him practising again after the show. :-) We spent most of the day there at the Safari Park and still did not see it all. We were all pretty beat when we got back.

Oh man, I almost forgot about the best part. They had photo ops with a white tiger cub. We got to have our picture taken with me holding a cub!

Monday Medical

Doctor reviewing Kylee's paperwork.
Prescision hearing test. I don't think we will even have to take her in when we get home!!:-)

All the nurses wore these crisp pink uniformss.The girls and some of their new friends. Everywhere we go the school kids want to stop and talk. They have been fantastic, sharing their lunch and treats with the girls, asking our names, telling us theirs etc etc.
The girls joined a conga line!





Sorry its been awhile since I updated, between the Internet being down and the girls nap schedules and such I have really gotten behind!

Monday we had Kylee's medical check up. It is a very rudimentary exam. You pay your fee then go to the first room where they weigh and measure and take temps. The second room is where a doctor reviews their records and gives the child a quick stethoscope exam and a quick look over for bruises, contusions etc. The third and last room is the ENT room. Here an older lady with a 1950's reflector monocle like you see in the cartoons looks down the child's throat and into her eyes. The real kicker is the ear exam. While the doctor distracts the child to the front, she shakes a little tambourine and bangs a little drum beside the child's ear to see if they respond. That darn Kylee.........pretended she didn't hear a thing!! :-) That was the end of the exam and Judy took the exam papers with her. Judy went to the consulate on Tuesday to process our paperwork there.

Shamian Island

Dads make great couches!


Group dinner. Tony took the pic.


Morgan and Aliya at dinner. Little cuties!



The girls posing with one of the many bronzes located around the square.


Dr's AiMeng and TianYan perform a nose job. Dads was way too big!


Today we had a free day until 3:30 when Judy came to help us finish paperwork and collect our visa fees. We just relaxed and the girls watched a couple of movies. You can buy dvd's, new releases etc for $1-2! We walked around a little and bought the girls a couple of small toys to entertain them then came back to the room for naps and to wait for Judy. After the paperwork session, Judy took us to dinner at a traditional Chinese restaurant. It is always enjoyable because the meals are served family style on a big lazy susan set on around table. Dinner was excellent with barbecued pork, sweet and sour pork, a beef dish, fried noodles, spicy green beans, broccoli and a fruit platter. Yummy! After dinner we went to the local photo store to get Jax's and Kylee's visa photos. Judy will take this paperwork to the U.S. consulate on Tuesday and walk it through the process there, while we go to a wildlife safari.

Today we had breakfast and will meet Judy to go get the kids medical check-up. This is a very very basic check that is truly a formality. Then Judy is going to take us on a tour of a couple places we have been before but are very interesting. Then we are going shopping at some supposedly "cheap" places then off to lunch and then back "home".

Traveling to Guangzhou

Anna and Mr. Gua.


Group photo at the Changsha airport ready to depart for Guangzhou.


Group photo, all wearing our AAC Adoption T'shirts.


The lobby at the Dolton, very nice!


Susan and us at breakfast at the Dolton Hotel, Changsha


I had about a ten paragraph posting going with Kylee sitting on my lap. She pounded on the key board and wiped it all out!! :-) You are going to get the extremely shortened version now. Yesterday at breakfast Susan who was to be our guide in Changsha came to meet Lisa and I and bring the girls presents and a package for "ZZ Families" in the states. They are a Yahoo group that supports Kylee's orphanage with programs and monetary help. We packed up and Mr. Gua and Anna delivered us to the pairport for our flight to Guangzhou for the second half of our stay in China. We just can't say enough about Anna our facilitator and guide in Changsha. She just did an awesome job!! Anna Bannana, we miss you already! We hope that if Anna ever travels to the U.S. that she will come and stay with us.
We arrived in Guangzhou and were delivered to the Victory Hotel Annex. Judy, our local facilitator was here to meet us. We have a really nice mini-suite here with lots of room to spread out. After a dinner at Lucy's Bar and Grill we took a little stroll and hit the hay. We had breakfast here at the hotel and are back in our room unpacking while the girls watch a movie and dad blogs.
We meet with Judy this afternoon to complete our paperwork here, which Judy will take to the consulate for us. Tomorrow we do Kylee and Jax's medical checkups. Then on Tuesday while Judy delivers our paperwork to the U.S. Consulate, the Harbours and us are going to a local wild life safari. Wednesday we should receive Kylee's U.S. visa and be free to travel. The only problem is the next non-stop flight is Friday night which we plan to be on!! :-). Meantime we will wander Shamian Island, where we are, do some shopping and such and just generally relax and enjoy ourselves.
Did I mention, it is about 90 degrees with 98% humidity???? Should be cooler in the 70's on Tuesday and Wednesday. Laterz.

Mystery solved!

Anna asked Miss Liu how Kylee knew so much sign language and English. Just as we had thought, Miss Liu was the culprit! :-) Feeling that Kylee might be adopted, she started teaching her about 6 months ago. I can't imagine that she had a lot of time with her because Kylee has been living at the boarding school and with her foster Mom. But apparently Miss Liu would accompany Kylee on the city buses between the boarding school and her foster Moms on the weekends. She must have taught her then. Miss Liu said she learned sign language from books, other deaf children and the Internet. Also Miss Liu's English is very good even though she doesn't think so!

Thank you so very much Miss Liu! You are an awesome caregiver and we are forever in your debt. Thank you.

Chopsticks 101.

Kylee is a master with the sticks! Not just little kid size ones. These are full size and she grabs them way back from the end. And of course, she finishes with a very professional noodle "slurp"! :-)

Kylee's Boarding School

Children coming to see Kylee off.


Door to Kylee's classrom. That is her picture in the pink with her name on it.


Kylee's classroom.


Kylee's teachers.


Courtyard at one of the dorms at Kylee's school.

Visiting day

They had a really nice playground.


Us and Kylee's foster Mom. They had such love for each other.

Kylee's foster Mom.


This is Kylee's room. Little bed on the lower right.


Us with the orphanage director and office manager.

Yesterday was an extremely emotional day for us all, particularly Kylee. We drove about an hour and a half southeast to Zhuzhou where Kylee's orphanage is located. We were fortunate to arrange visits to her orphanage, her boarding school for deaf children and her finding site. We arrived at the orphanage after some roundabout driving due to the highway being barricaded, no signs, no warnings just barricaded! We turned around and found another way into the city. Anna and Mr. Gua did a fantastic job all day of finding a way to get to where we needed to go. It is pretty confusing in the cities because not all streets are signed and there has not been much traffic layout as the cities grew so rapidly. We reached the orphanage and met with the Director, the office manager and Miss Liu. Miss Liu and the office manager were the ones who had brought Kylee into Changsha on Monday. It was nice to see them again. They gave us a tour of the facility and we met a number of the children who came up to greet us. These are all special needs children and they all seemed very happy and obviously loved and cared for. This visit was weighing very heavily on Kylee and she was becoming more agitated and clung more tightly to Lisa as the minutes went on. We had decided earlier in agreement with Miss Liu that seeing Kylee's foster mother might be too much for her. Her foster mother had come to the orphanage to catch one last glimpse of Kylee though. The ladies pointed her out down in the courtyard and when she saw Kylee through the window and thought that was the last she would see of her she just fell to her knees and wept. We decided to go down and let them have one last goodbye. It was so painful to see the love between them but I think in the end it was the right thing to do. Hopefully it gave both of them some closure. We left the orphanage then and Miss Liu accompanied us to take us to the boarding school. This school is for all local deaf children and though the staff was polite and friendly they did not seem to have the same sense of compassion for Kylee as they did at the orphanage. Kylee grew extremely agitated there and we left as soon as we could. I believe she thought we might leave her there. It was heart wrenching but now we know where she was and she has said her goodbyes. As we were getting in the van to go forty or fifty of the children came up to the van to see Kylee's new parents. Among them were a boy and girl of about 14 that were from the orphanage. They were so happy for Kylee and the fact that she had found her "forever family". It tore me up to know that those two children will probably never be adopted at their age, yet they loved Kylee and were so happy for her. It seemed that all the children at both the orphanage and school truly loved little TianYan. Miss Liu then took us to find Kylee's finding site. After much searching and asking around we found the location and took pictures. I will just say it was in an area of apartments and dwellings near the orphanage where someone would find her almost immediately and seek help for her. We have chosen to keep the details and photos private for our family and for Kylee when the time comes. This completed the visits that we had come to make, so we got back in the van and headed back to the hotel in Changsha. Kylee was exhausted and fell into a deep sleep on the way back. As soon as we got back to the familiar surroundings of the hotel and our room Kylee began to relax and I believe was the most relaxed she has been yet. I think she realized she was stuck with us forever, like it or not! :-) She definitely is a mamma's girl. I am not sure she has been around many men. She does like me though but just tolerates me most times! :-). At breakfast she will smell mommas coffee and give a big thumbs up(her seal of approval that something smells good ,tastes good or is just good in general) then she will smell my coffee and wave her little hand under her nose signifying poppas coffee stinks!!! lol I am including a picture of her eating noodles with chop sticks. She is a master. Well I believe that is all for now.