We have arrived in Guangzhou

Hello again,

This time I am writing from Guangzhou. We are soooooooo glad to be here. It feels kind of like Florida, about 75 degrees and the nicest city we have seen so far. Our hotel is exquisite. We feel like we are in heaven. Lilly is sound asleep, as are Scott and Sharlyn. I am tired but wanted to write a little and put up some more pictures. Lilly cut three teeth since Sunday and last night we got about 2 hours of sleep total. She had her first plane ride today and did great. We had a quick breakfast at the hotel and were on the bus headed for the airport by 8 am. It is amazing how all these families are able to juggle so much. So many important documents, new babies, appointments and still we are all on time and ready to go. Whenever Dennis tells us to be somewhere at a certain time we are there. Dennis is our coordinator so he has been with us since last Saturday and will be with us until we leave. We also get a local guide in each province. Here in Guangzhou it is Simon. In Jiangxi it was Mary. All of these people are so kind and generous. They go the extra mile all the time and they do it with such grace. They are handling so many legal documents and juggling the schedules of several families, each with a new baby and yet they do it all with a calm confindence that creates such a feeling of one big family. It will be hard to part with all of these people. They truly feel like our family. Scott has to leave tomorrow. He has been sick the whole time and although we hate to see him go I really hope he will go to the doctor when he gets home. I have been so grateful to Sharlyn for her willingness to undertake this big adventure with us. I cannot imagine what I would have done over here with a sick husband and a new baby. She has been such a joy to have with us. We could never thank her enough. She and Lilly are already deep in love with one another. We walked into our hotel this afternoon and we were so excited. It is absolutely beautiful and we are feeling so nurtured. We ordered room service and it was delicious. It was the first real food I have had in almost a week. They wheeled it in on the cart with the white linen and the fancy dishes. The whole nine yards. We are definitely stepping up the quality here in Guangzhou. We had to do some more legal paperwork tonight and tomorrow we have to have all the babies pictures taken for their Visas so they can enter the United States. We got their passports yesterday. We will also do some shopping tomorrow and try to find some nice things to bring home. The pictures above are pretty self explanatory. Lilly with her Dad, Lilly with her Mom trying papaya juice out of a straw, Lilly on the comfy bed at the new hotel, Lilly riding the bus and the other is all of the families luggage waiting to be checked at the airport. Dennis makes something that could be a nightmare into such a lesson in patience and trust. We all wait together in the lines with these babies, our luggage, our hungry bellies and we are all in a good mood and treat each other so kindly. It is really something to see and we create quite a stir wherever we go. We tend to move in a herd like fashion. Imagine the stares we get. It is pretty funny. I wanted to let you know that for some reason I am unable to check the blog over here so I may repeat myself on some things or post duplicate pictures. I have no idea if the text is lined up right or if it gets mixed up with the pictures. I hope it is coming out okay. I am also unable to read any posts so if you want to email me you can do that at kimberlyannholmes@gmail.com. It is sometimes hard to remember everything I said. I also wanted to tell you that yesterday I posted twice so if you just saw the pictures with a short entry make sure you scroll down and check out the earlier post that is a little more detailed. My eyes are starting to get very heavy so I will sign off and update you again tomorrow. It means so much to us that you are following our journey by reading this blog. Thank you so much.

Kimberly

More Photos

Just another quick post to share more photos. Notice the waitress who played with Lilly during our entire lunch. After awhile you do get used to strangers loving on your baby and in fact I rather enjoy it. They LOVE babies here. When you walk around with a baby you might as well be a rockstar. The last picture is of our dinner. We ordered at dress for Lilly around 5pm and they hand made it and delivered it to our room at 8:30. It is beautiful. First birthday outfit for sure. Only $15USD or 105 yuan. Time for bed!

Images of Nanchang

Hello,

I am very tired - it is 1:30am and Lilly is not sleeping well tonight. We have to get up at 5am and leave for the airport to fly to Guangzhou (Guan-joe). That is the last stop for the next 6 days and then back to Beijing and then Washington, DC and then Syracuse and then home!! I wanted to just share some of these beautiful images I captured today when we visited a rural village and also people in the city of Nanchang as we walked around. The people here are fascinating and I feel such deep appreciation for who they are. I will try to post some more photos before we head out in the morning.

Love,

Kimberly and Lilly and Scott and Sharlyn

More Pictures for your Viewing Pleasure

Hi again,

Two posts in one day! Lilly is napping and I thought I would add some more pictures. I imagine it is fun every time you check the blog and there is something new. We can feel support coming from across the ocean and we appreciate it so much. The photo of the dragon like creature was part of a building at the Forbidden City. The picture of Scott with his new friend is at the Great Wall. We had heard that sometimes people here will want photos of you or with you. They are fascinated by bigger noses is what I have heard and this guy specifically wanted Scott and not Sharlyn and I and his nose is bigger than ours. Pretty funny! The picture of Lilly inspecting something is what she does almost all the time. She is fascinated with small things and very detail oriented. For those of you who understand the learning patterns taught at massage school - she is a total V in the front. Just like her Mama. She has taken this long nap on my lap and I have had no urge to set her down. We are building the trust with her now that you normally build in the early days and weeks of life with your parents. We want her to know we are right here. When she wakes up she will scan the room and check each of our faces as if to say "you are still here??" We always say "We're still here Lilly." Scott is not feeling well at all. No more cheeseburgers for him. He wasn't able to go to the Teng Wang Pavilion so Sharlyn and I went with Lilly and the rest of the families. It is so beautiful there but I can't share photos with you because my camera batteries were dead. Don't worry .... I had more in the room so we are good to go again. Tonight we are going to dinner with Mary (one of the coordinators that works with Dennis) and some other families. We are pretty hungry but so grateful for the snacks we brought from home. The other picture of Lilly is her first taste of ice cream. She was unsure of the cold but once she got a taste she was begging for more. It was of course high quality and very yummy. The picture of the clothes over the bushes is right outside of Lilly's orphanage and that is how they dry them. It just seemed like a photo journalistic moment. Lilly is up now so time to play with the baby. One of Lilly's friends from the same orphanage is at the hospital because she has an infection. Her name is Chloe. Please keep her mother Molly and her Grandmother Claire in your thoughts and prayers as they are very scared and worried. They are wonderful people who will have in our lives forever now. It is very important to us both that the girls stay connected and know that they were together on their journey while they waited for us.

Blessings,

Kimberly

Still more to show and tell

Hello again,

I wanted to share some more photos with you. The first one is a picture Scott took when he walked down to the river on Tuesday. We thought he had quite the photojournalistic eye. The one of Sharlyn and Lilly and myself is near our hotel on the way to dinner. That night our dinner was 49 yuan for all three of us, this is about $7 USD and then we came back to the hotel and got some Haagen Daaz Ice Cream which was 58 yuan or around $8 USD. After that Sharlyn and Scott paid $6 for coffee. We figured that if dinner for four was only $7 then we could pay that much for ice cream and coffee - bringing our total expense for the night to $21 - not bad. The picture of Lilly with the waitress is where we ate the dinner. She is the one that just scooped Lilly right out of my arms. It is amazing how we find ways to communicate with people when we don't share the same language. We are finding the people to be very kind and generous and they love babies. The one thing that is very different here is that they dress babies in many, many heavy layers and no matter how much we layer Lilly, people will come up to us on the street and start peeling back her clothes and feeling her hands to make sure she is warm enough. They do this to all the babies and they must think Americans freeze their babies. We layer Lilly a lot but none of our clothing has the thickness or bulk that their children wear. It is interesting to watch how people have no problem checking out the babies out of love and concern. We just smile and say she -ay she-ay (thank you). We are looking forward to leaving Nancheng on Saturday morning. This is the capital city of Jiangxi and it is very dirty and a little depressing. We don't like to venture out to much and the food is pretty questionable (braised frog for dinner last night). We are waiting for Lilly's passport to be processed - that is why we are in this city. We wish we were in Yichun where Lilly's orphanage is - much cleaner and it looked like we would do a lot of walking around there. I gave you the wrong pronounciation of Yichun last night - I know how to say it - I guess I was just tired. It is

eeesh-wan. We were happy to find that Lilly was born in a more remote village. The countryside is very beautiful with lots of gardens and interesting irrigation systems. We really enjoyed seeing all of that. Today we are going to the Teng Wang Pavillion which is right near our hotel. It was built in 653 in the Tang Era. It was immortalized by the poet Tang Bo and there have been about 26 versions of it built since then. It is 197 feet tall and is built in the Southern Song style. Sometimes they hold performances of song and dance there. Tomorrow we will go to a traditional village and also to shop for porcelain. This province is where the first porcelain came from and of course we call it "China" because of where it came from. The post office will not ship it so if we buy any it will have to be very small. We may buy another suitcase to check on the plane for items that we buy. So far we have not bought anything. The exchange rate is definitely in our favor so hopefully we will get some interesting things when we fly to Guangzhou (say Gwan-joe) on Saturday. That is where we will take Lilly's passport and get her visa and her medical exams. We will also take an oath at the consulate and have a farewell dinner. The other photos are of Lilly already going Hollywood with my sunglasses and also a picture of the cribs where she slept in the orphanage. Pray for those babies please. Lilly is blessing us with her powerful presence every second. Our hearts have broken wide open for this sweet, sweet girl. I cannot wait for all of you to meet her. The pictures only tell part of the story.

Blessings,

Kimberly and crew

A Lilly Grace Ke Xiu update

Hi Everyone,

I wrote a nice long entry yesterday with these photos and then somehow in the world of computers I hit the wrong button and it was gone. We are doing great. Lilly is doing better and better everyday. On Sunday she was not interested in being kissed at all and now she can't get enough. Since I wrote last we have finalized the adoption so Lilly is now legally our daughter. She is just so sweet and beautiful and we cannot stop staring at her. Scott and Sharlyn went to Wal Mart - yes - you read that right - on Monday with the group to buy some needed items. We did not bring a bowl or a spoon and Lilly likes rice cereal. We have also discovered that she likes banana bread, mandarin oranges, Haagen Daaz Strawberry Ice Cream, the Chinese version of Cheerios and sesame sticks. She loves grown up food. We weighed her yesterday and she only weighs 14 pounds. Dennis told us not to compare her to American babies. She is very healthy and is obviously going to be a petite person. On Tuesday we had a free day and we spent a lot of time in our room just hanging out and bonding with Lilly. She already knows who her mother is and will cry for me if she sees me and I am not the one holding her. It is hard to imagine our lives even one week ago without her in it. In the evening we went to a traditional Chinese restaurant. They were just getting ready for their dinner rush and the young women were cleaning and setting tables and talking with each other. Lilly was mesmerized by them. Then the girls all lined up and sang before they got busy. It seemed to be a ritual that they do before the evening begins. It was very beautiful. One of the waitresses picked up Lilly and carried her around for a bit. We were told this might happen sometimes. It is accepted here in China but of course in the US we would never pick up a stranger's baby. I actually found it very sweet but was glad I had been told or it might have unsettled me. We went to bed very early - 7pm! Today we spent most of the day on a bus driving to Lilly's orphanage. It is in Yichun

(say eesh -une). We met the nannies they are called ni ni which is mandarin for Grandma. They were tiny little women full of smiles. They clearly loved the babies. Scott wanted to see the countryside but waited in the van with Lilly because his heart couldn't bear the orphanage. When they found out Ke Xiu was our daughter the said "Xiu Xiu (her nickname -say sheo sheo) she is very smart and very good baby." Which is so true she did not fuss one time on a six hour bus ride. Now here is the shocker .....we ate lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken. YUCK. The food here so far is a little rough. Let's just say that the Chinese people eat everything. One of the meals tonight in the restaurant at the hotel was braised frog. I am waiting for the pizza delivery now. Just as I wrote that the delivery guy rang the bell and Lilly started to cry. So I guess that is it for now. I can only post a certain amount of pictures at a time so I will try to post today's photos without a real post since I am sure lots of you want to see as many photos as you can. We saw lots of water buffalo and many people in the fields tending their vegetable plot. We passed a cultivated pearl farm. We also saw some fresh graves that were very decorated with colorful pinwheels that fluttered in the wind. There were about 10 on each grave and they went the length of it and stood about 5 ft. high. They were quite beautiful. We were not able to get pictures of these things because we were moving on the bus. Yichun where Lilly has been living is a really nice city. There is a beautiful river that goes through the city. Lilly comes from a rural village about two hours down a dirt road from Yichun. A country girl just like her family! It was too far to go there. Lilly is awake now and eating pizza crust so I must go.

Blessings,

Kimberly

WE HAVE LILLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi everyone,

We are here with Lilly. She is so beautiful. She did not cry at all when they handed her to me. She did start to cry when another baby started to cry and then they all got upset. It was a small room on the 26th floor of a very tall building. The babies were there with their "aunties". All young girls who take care of the babies at the orphanages. They were very sweet and we could tell they were sad to say good bye to the babies. Lilly's Auntie said "bye bye Ke Xiu and touched her as she walked away. I wanted to hug and kiss the Auntie but she hurried away with the other girls. About 20 other families got their babies at the same time. Eleven with our group and then other families that were from other agencies. It was very surreal, VERY emotional and the experience of a lifetime. We will never be the same after being a part of not only bringing Lilly to our family but watching other families meet their daughters for the first time. It gives me goose bumps as I write. We got back on the bus and came back to the hotel and immediately undressed her and the three of us gave her a bath in a very tiny bathroom. She really liked the water and it seemed comforting to her. After that we lotioned and powdered her up and put some jammies on her. She did cry for quite awhile and seemed so distressed by our voices. Remember......she has never heard English. Scott thought of the good idea to turn the tv on and that seemed to help a lot. She fought sleep but finally gave in about 7:30. It is now 4 in the morning and we are all up and sitting on the bed with her. She is quiet and very curious about every little noise. She is a deep, deep thinker. She is so beautiful. We are calling her the Empress. She is delicate yet very strong. She seems to know who we are in that soulful kind of way. Today we do the legal appointments that make it final. It was so funny when we picked her up - after mountains of paperwork and having every part of your life scrutinized and waiting three years all you have to do is ride the bus and go up an elevator to the 26th floor and show a lady your passports and then they hand you your daughter and then back on the bus. We are so blessed and this baby is not the lucky one ...........we are.

Will write again later today or tomorrow with more photos.

Love,

Kimberly and crew