Visit to the Old City!

walking down the steps



medicine shop



view of the river

hungry?

cuteness...

Hello from Chongqing! Today we woke up to rain....so we delayed our tour of the old city style living village. When we went though it started to rain again....a little scary on those stairs in the slipperly rain! LOL! After the tour we hung out at the hotel and it rained off and on all day. On the way back to the hotel we did attempt to go to lunch at Pizza Hut.....while waiting for our order Ella turned into a crazy monkey so we got it to go! She is alot more vocal today making all kinds of sounds. Daddy is still #1 but we had some good playtime today and of course I can feed her, bathe her and I put her to bed at night. Tomorrow we fly to Guangzhou where we will complete the American side of the paperwork. Looking forward to being with other americans to talk to and having a playroom, pool and places to eat that look good! Please pray for the flight.....hopefully since it is at 615pm she will be tired...we will see!

E'Ling Park and the 3 Gorges Museum....

Today we went on a tour with our guide Sophie to E'ling park. It started off nice but within minutes you could feel the humididty. It is the highest mountain in the city of Chongqing and the pictures and view from the top are supposed to be stunning...today it was too foggy as you will see. While there we participated in a tea ceremony which we had never done. After the park we visited the 3 gorges museum which also held history of Chongqing over the past 100 years. It was interesting!

After that we headed back to the hotel and hung out for the rest of the day. Mike still has the cold and Ella must be getting teeth as she drools alot and has her fingers in her mouth constantly! LOL! We are working on the bonding with her and I and had a mini breakthrough tonight....at least till bedtime! haha! Enjoy some pics from today! 10 more sleeps here....

Forever Family....

Today started off as an ordinary day but in reality it was not an ordinary day, you see around 2pm today Ella was officially declared OURS! That's right no turning back now! We went back to the office and the 3 other families who received children were also there. We had pictures taken and a ceremony. Very different from the procedure when we adopted Sadena. We purchased a photo book that will be ready on Friday from the ceremony. We also took pics with Mike's phone but he and Ella are both asleep...at 6pm! So I will share those photos later.

So I know you are wondering how things are going?!? Things are going pretty good. 10 days until we leave for home and I would be lying if I said that we were not counting down. I miss our family, our couch, the bed, food and restaurants where people know what you are saying and I miss being able to pick up the phone and talk to a friend when you need to! Ella is doing great. She has bonded really well with Mike and will seek him out when crying. I am okay with her but that seems to be in short time frames. She would much prefer him right now. Please pray for Mike as he seems to be getting a cold and neither of us has really recovered this time from the jet leg...times are still off. Last night he was asleep by 7 and up at 4am.....and I definitely need him okay while she prefers him. Ok now for the pics.....

Gotcha!

Well today was Gotcha day! We arrived at the civil affairs office and walked in to go to the 14th floor, we turned around and there they were! They had arrived around 1 hour early! She looked suspicious at first so I took her and we proceeded upstairs. She fussed for less than a minute and then went into daddys arms where she stayed pretty much the remainder of the time!

We came back to the room, fed her a bottle then a mashed banana...which she loved, then playtime and of course more cute pictures to share!

And we were able to have the sisters meet for the first time each 1/2 a world away from each other via technology! AMAZING!

 things about Ella:
1. she is a finger sucker
2. she is a daddys girl....so far
3. we brought size 9 month pj's based on her size and had to cut the feet off....without the feet the legs go to
     her knees! LOL! Hoping the 12 month clothes do ok...will see tomorrow
4. she loves to stick her tongue out
5. when lying down if she wants to sit up she will mover her legs to a full out split, push herself up and then
    sit....do not tell regi...she will be recruiting her for the team! LOL!
6. she is adorable


That is it for now.....i better head to bed too... who knows when we will be up!

Hello from Chongqing!

Hi! well we made it to Chongqing and that can only mean that tomorrow our precious Ella will be in our arms! Woohoo! So let me tell you about the day.....first i wanted to share the pillow menu from the Beijing hotel....thought you might enjoy it. We just stuck with the pillows provided! LOL!

We got up this morning for the flight to Chongqing and let me tell you it was crazy! Nothing like flying a full asian airplane....it is an experience just getting on the plane! We were met at the airport by our guide Sophie and she is really nice. She took us to the hotel and got us settled then came back for us around 2pm to take us to the grocery and to grab food. Unlike when we were here for Sadena, in this province near our hotel there is not a McDonalds, Subway ect....all food is ordered in Chinese and it is all Chinese food so far. She took us to 2 places. We ate a small lunch at one of them then to the store where Mike kept teasing me that my boyfriend was following me. I guess a man came in after us and was staring then continued on but every corner he seemed to reappear and just staring at me! LOL! Glad Mike was there! We ended up with a 6pack of budweiser, 2 diet cokes, 4 bottles of water, a loaf of sweet bread, 2 noodle bowls, 3 yogurts and a bunch of bananas for a whopping $10 USD! Cannot beat that. Not sure what we will eat tonight....probably the food from the store as we have the menu for the restaurant she showed us and to be honest none of it sounds good.....We meet our guide tomorrow at 1:40pm.....planning to have a good and filling breakfast from the buffet that is included in the room! Here are a few pics from today...we have not really been anywhere today except the plane and store!

the crib is here!

these are for sale in our room....strange taste horsebeans anyone?!?

a copy of her finding ad

the apartment view from our window


Next post will be Ella day unless something exciting happens! LOL! Angie