If you want an Arnold Schwarzenegger portrait........

We explored Guangzhou today. There are a lot of people here and it was hot! I know it was hot in Nebraska as well but factor in the huge amounts of people and it was a bit insane out and about today. Adam and I were talking on the train to Guangzhou yesterday about how many people live in the area that we passed through, 50 million! Basically that would be 50 million people living within a 90 mile radius of Omaha. We traveled by subway today to a couple of shopping areas and it was pretty amazing how many people that mass transit moved.

Subway ticket purchasing area at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon- people were out and about!

We did end up finding some jade while we were out and I got some face cream from Sephora here. Sounds weird but when I was here last time I got it and it was amazing. They don't sell it in the US, probably because it contains something they can't sell in the US. I live on the edge. Also did some thrifty negotiating for a couple dresses for the girls for Chinese New Year. Found this gem on the street market.

Don't think it will fit in our suitcases, very disappointing. We ate at the Chinese restaurant here at the hotel. We had some delicious fried chicken wings and noodles.

Settling in to our hotel room for

China Hotel- Guangzhou

We took the train late Saturday morning from Hong Kong to Guangzhou in mainland China. Very easy and nice way to travel. Our guide picked us up at the train station and we again got a taste for the traffic here in Guangzhou, very crowded and sometimes very little regard for lanes. I wondered how many people are side swiped here. We arrived at the China Hotel again for our long stay, it was actually kind of nice coming back to somewhere we had stayed last time. Finally made it to our room late Saturday afternoon to an update and a photo new photo of Hattie.

This is a photo of the photo, so not the best quality. They seem to have let her hair grow, I was expecting shaved head. I'll have to search for some ponytail holders tomorrow! From the measurements we got she seems to be almost as big as Naomi right now. A little over 34 inches and 26 pounds. I'm a little worried the shoes I brought are too small, those feet look good sized! We received her daily schedule and she is getting up around 6:30am and going to bed at 10pm. It says she still needs a diaper at night and reminding to use the bathroom, so we will see how that goes. Eating steamed rice with minced meat and vegetables. It says she has been in good health. They describe her as "meek" and initially does not like strangers until she is acquainted. Sounds a bit like Naomi, or most any kid. Not sure about the meek, whether that means quiet. She loves playing

Hong Kong Day 2- It didn't rain!

We went to the laser light show on the harbor last night. We watched it from the SkyView Bar at the Sheraton and had some overpriced beers while we watched it. We are considering this our anniversary trip this year. We said every 5 years we would do a trip out of the country for our anniversary. Our honeymoon we did Rome, 5 year we did Ireland, and now our 10 year Hong Kong. Our camera lens got a little foggy from the humidity! We also walked down Hong Kong's Avenue of the Stars, which is similar to the Hollywood walk of fame here. Our guidebook said it was unimpressive, and indeed it was. Adam found a Bruce Lee statue.

Jet lag is still kicking in for me, I slept maybe 5 hours last night. I keep thinking all of the sleep deprivation is going to make for a good night's sleep, but not yet. Today we saw the sun, and no rain! I tried to get rid of some of my pasty whiteness, not sure I succeeded. We started the day off by heading to the Chi Lin Nunnery. I had read about it in the guidebook and although it wasn't a top site, I would highly recommend it. One of the most beautiful places I have been. All of the structures are created from carved wood and assembled with no nails, just interlocking pieces. Pretty amazing. We got lots of beautiful pictures here, I posted a few of our favorites.

We made it! And it's raining.......a lot

We left Tuesday around noon. Adam's mom was nice enough to come down and take us to the airport where we said our goodbyes to Naomi. I wasn't a complete, hysterical mess but it was rough knowing we weren't going to be with her for 17 days.

Last photo as a family of three

Add caption

In Chicago we didn't realize we had to go through security again and only had a little over an hour to get from flight to flight. We managed and even had a torta from Frontera Grill takeout at the airport. Which I must say was the best sandwich I've had in a long time! We settled in for our 15 1/2 hour flight. We flew Cathay Pacific and they were very nice. I even played Who wants to be a Millionaire on their touch screens, unfortunately it was the British version so I was quite bad. Managed to watch the Great Gatsby as well, which was highly disappointing given I love the book so much. Arrived in Hong Kong about 7:30pm, and it was downpouring as we landed. I was very excited to see our luggage and then we took a taxi ride to our hotel in Kowloon. The weaving in and out of traffic and our cab driver only made me mildly scared, which was better than I was expecting. Tried to sleep last night, finally took melatonin about 3am and slept until 8:30am. It rained all night here and when we finally headed out for they day around 9:30am it had stopped. However the rain picked right back up around 10am and hasn't stopped. Not just a sprinkle but a serious rain, all day! We still were determined to see some things, so we rode the MTR and went up to the top of Victoria Peak by tram.

On our way up!

Hattie's Crib

On another special episode of Cribs (again where did that show go?), we tour Hattie Cook's new space.Still have some decorating to do when she gets home but it's definitely close to done. I l think it's a good toddler room with lots of space and furniture to last her through many years. We used a ton of stuff we already had. In fact all of the furniture was stuff we had, just repurposed and fixed up. We spent less than $500! Here's a tour!

Hallway between the girls' rooms, one heart in Omaha and one in China

Old owner's paint shelf repurposed

Chalkboard wall

Reflection

Today started out as not a great day. Let's just say some dominos I was hoping would fall one way, fell the other. And then some of the multiple balls I had up in the air fell and smacked me in the face. The stress of everything going on for us hit hard today. I was at a point where the next person that told me something I didn't want to hear, was going to have to deal with uncontrollable crying or be told to f*** off. It really could have gone either way.

I ran home for 10 minutes to change clothes after work, to go to another work function, where I had to have professional photos taken for any publicity they may need my face for. I don't know why they couldn't keep using my class composite photo from 8 years ago, I totally look the same. I threw something that was sort of clean and professional looking on, and tried to fix a little makeup so it didn't totally look like a mugshot after a hard night out. As I was rushing around I caught a glimpse of Hattie's photo on our travel approval. A much younger Hattie.

I keep losing track in these preparations of the fact she is going to be ours in about two weeks. It's always been this mythical thing that was probably going to happen, but when? Adam sent me a text of the milk he bought at Target.

That's the date we are leaving. The milk is expiring the day we are leaving! Who's going to throw it out and HOLY CRAP that is the day we are leaving.  Both nauseating and exciting at the same time, I am losing track during my days that I am becoming a parent again, very soon. My job is very important to me, where my dog stays is important to me, whether our parents have every possible phone number they could need is important to me, whether my DVR records Dexter and Hard Knocks while I"m gone is a little important to me..........but my biggest job is focusing to become a mother again. Everything does need to be taken care of before we go, but time needs to be taken out for reflection and processing of the situation I am about to walk in to for a second time. As a die hard introvert I need it. So on the way to my work function I listened to my favorite Pandora station the whole way, the station I play when I want to be hopeful about this process coming to a happy ending. I didn't check my email at stoplights and I didn't think about what I had to do when I got to my destination. I drove and listened, to exactly what I needed to.

We're back

It's been about 18 months since I posted anything on this blog. Life changed! A lot has happened since then. In the past 18ish months we bought a house, renovated the new house extensively, sold our old house, adopted a 21 month old, Adam changed jobs, and we are very close to adopting a 31 month old. Oh yea, and I'll be changing jobs when I return from maternity leave. Just the small things.

Anyway, this blog started out to document our first adoption journey back in 2010/2011. I did a fairly good job keeping up with the process for our adoption of Naomi until we went to China. China is where shit got real. See blog post China: Walk on. Our actual time in China didn't really get documented. So.........as many of you know we are about to go to China again, for our second daughter, Hattie. We've been much more laid back this process and haven't been documenting our journey as much. What I am hoping to do this time is actually blog/document our time in China with Hattie as it's happening. Not only to keep our interested friends and family up on what's going on while we are there (no Facebook in China), but also to have a record of exactly how we were feeling during that part of the journey and the time leading up to our travel. Also each sister can have a part of their adoption journey blogged about, thus beginning the lifelong debate of who had it worse. I can hear them saying, blogging was so self involved and 2013 mom.

We are all excited to meet Hattie, and honestly be done with the adoption process and perpetual waiting for our family to be complete. Over the next few weeks you will hopefully get a little glimpse into the chaos and joy of the last minute preparations and process of bringing a new child into our life through adoption. There will be tears, excitement, curse words, love, beer, and a multitude of other emotions I'm sure I haven't felt before. But in the end this girl will be home and with her family!

I'm two!!

My hair is growing in thick and getting a bit crazy!

My ride

Where I sleep

:

My favorite toys include: my stroller,

China: Walk On

I listened to U2's song "Walk On" a lot during our process, it helped me picture the end. Little did I know how much walking on I needed to be prepared for. I would have brought more comfortable shoes. Lame joke, but I couldn't resist. China was hard. As many of you know Naomi was not my #1 fan there. I really can say I didn't have much for expectations, I'm actually usually not the optimist (some of you can stop rolling your eyes now). I'm pretty good at dealing with situations as they come up and finding a way through them. But this was different. I don't think anything can prepare you for rejection by your child after you have waited so long to become a mother. I was not able to do anything for her. I couldn't hold her, feed her, touch her, change her, push her stroller, nada. The fact that she wiped off my kisses is somewhat funny now that we are where we are today, but at the time, not so much. This was pretty much the entire first week we had her there. All of this while living in a hotel room in China for 14 days.

What will likely go down as one of the worst moments of my life was

Forever Family Day

December 5th, 2011 is the day we met our daughter. It was a day I will, of course, never forget. We were in the province that I believe has the most kids adopted out of it and the experience was very surreal. We went to the civil affairs building, I think about 2pm on a Monday. There were probably 30 families in a fairly small area all waiting to be finally united with their children. It was an amazing experience to have, within an hour 30 new families were created right there. The emotion is indescribable. We were the last ones! We actually saw Naomi by chance when we walked in through a door. She was screaming! Which was pretty much how it went. See below. We immediately had the opportunity to meet with the director of the foster home. She was amazing and we received several things for Naomi, including a "baby" book with several of her "firsts", many photos, a quilt made for her, and a quill made of her hair from her first haircut. We learned more about the care she had received and we are very, very lucky in that aspect. The True Children's Home cared for her from the time she was about 5 months old. If you go to their website you will see Naomi (XiangDing) in several newsletters and photos. More about them in the future but we owe them a lot for the care of our daughter. We then waited, and waited, and waited until the orphanage staff showed up to transfer custody. Do you see a trend for this process, even at the end? We ended up being, I believe, the last ones. It was not love at first sight for Naomi, we weren't really expecting it to be. There was one moment of peace we captured, but we saw firsthand the strong will she had that day.

Yes, Naomi's Home!

China Day 2

So I've been pretty neglectful of the blog since we got travel approval and came home with Naomi. Things have been a crazy whirlwind in many different aspects of our lives. Naomi was home in the US on Dec. 16th and doing so incredibly well now! I think you can tell the difference in the two photos below. She is such a resilient little girl! I have much to share about our journey in China and our adjustment and will be updating the blog in the next week with all of those things! Hopefully then I can keep it up on a more frequent basis to share her progress, we have so many fun things planned for the next couple of months!

Gotcha Day

Home 2 weeks

Home 4 weeks

Home 4 weeks- and yes, the princess on this shirt drives me crazy, but the photo was too cute to pass up!

Naomi's Crib

Over the past few months I have had a lot of fun creating spaces for Naomi. This weekend I put finishing touches on a lot of her spaces and took several things out of their packages finally! It is a mix of old and new. We did it very economically for the look we got, I'm actually pretty proud of it. We have been very blessed to have many special people give us and her so many wonderful things over the past few weeks to help us start our life with her. Trust me, those thank yous are coming! So on this very special episode of Cribs (what happened to that show, I loved it?) we show you where Miss Naomi will chill.

She is still sleeping in a crib according to the updates we received. The front comes off of ours and we have a little guard rail to replace so either way we are set. Many people think I got the crib from Ikea, it actually came from walmart.com and was a very good deal. Also a little deerhead hook to hang a bag with her stuff on or her jacket. The print above her bed is her Chinese name. The little mushroom on the bookcase is a night light.

Get ready America!

Naomi is coming home! We leave Nov. 29th and meet Naomi Dec. 5th. We will be back in Omaha on Dec. 16th! It's going to be a crazy 2 and a half weeks until we go, more details later!

Last Naomi Update

We received what will likely be our last update on Naomi before we travel! We received four photos, I had to significantly crop at least two because her foster mom and foster sister were in them, the quality on those two was a little lower. We are lucky to have some of her foster parents however to show her later. She is still rocking her hair and her attitude. She hasn't grown too much, still going to be a shorty. They described her personality as smart, outgoing, and lovely. She is talking and is good at expressing herself. She likes attaching to others, not sure if they said that because they thought that is what we wanted to hear, hoping it is true. We asked if there were things she did not like. She does not like eating birthday cake. I found that pretty hilarious as the first thing listed. Adam is thinking maybe ice cream cake she will be game for. She doesn't like thunder or setting off firecrackers. Not sure if they are letting her light firecrackers or she doesn't like the sound of them, I'm thinking its the latter. She also likes animals and there are currently cats and dogs in the house it sounds like, and she likes them. Looks like Ester, Timmy, and Baxter are safe. We should be letting everyone know when we are traveling very soon!

Places to go, people to see

Can you handle this much cuteness? I doubt it.

Cats in Clothes!

These are awesome! I just bought the notecard set to use for hallway art. 

Etsy shop for more Cats in Clothes

I want her home...

I want our daughter home now. The closer it gets the more I let myself think about her. The more I love her and miss her. That is all.

The Bookworm

We received a giftcard to The Bookworm at one of our baby showers and went to use it last night. We loved this bookstore! You forget how charming an independently owned bookstore is. The whole basement is a children's floor with reading nooks and all kinds of different books you couldn't find at Barnes & Noble. Adam has been obsessed with getting lunch at a taco truck that parks near UNMC, so we couldn't resist this book.

We also got a Children of The World matching game. You match the boy and girl from different countries. Each match has the way to say hello in that country's language. Probably a little above her age right now but she will have fun just tossing them around I'm sure!

Highly recommend you stop by there, they are in Countryside Village across from Westside High School. We received great customer service and when they asked what we were buying the books for and found out we were adopting from China, they let us know about a new set of blocks with Chinese characters they had just ordered that day. We will be going back in a couple weeks for them!

Baby Shower!

We had our first baby shower/ welcome shower on Sunday! It was a fantastic day and a few of my fellow workmates did an amazing job putting it together. It was great to finally start celebrating Naomi's arrival with some of Adam and I's friends. It was a "family" shower which was fun, a big party. I discovered I go through a lot of expressions when opening gifts, it really reveals my unphotogenic nature. She and us are truly blessed to have such amazing support. Work has been a place for both of us that has been such a huge support, I would have missed a lot more days over the past few years if I didn't work with some great people! Warning: most of these photos are of us opening gifts since I figured most guests didn't want random photos of them at a party posted!

NPR changed my life

I loved to read as a kid. Book-it was a favorite part of my summer. I mean you got free Personal Pan pizzas for reading.  I loved to write as a kid. I'm not one to brag......but I did win our Young Author's competition every other year in elementary school. I once wrote a story about a boy being sucked into a video game and living with the characters. Yeah, awesome, you don't need to tell me. I had a column in the school newspaper and thought I wanted to be a journalist when I grew up for awhile. There are definitely days I still do. I miss creative writing, I always found writing to be one of the easiest ways to express myself and let people know who I am.

I didn't know about NPR back then but if I would have I'm not sure I would be a pharmacist today. It would have been my ideal job. I love being a pharmacist and my career but I hate to think I would do one thing my whole life, I don't plan to. NPR did not alter my course back then to a career in journalism, but it did help alter an even bigger event in my life last year.

I listen to Fresh Air every once in awhile and I happened to listen to a podcast last August of Scott Simon talking to Teri Gross about his new book. That sentence should blow your mind as an NPR nerd. Anyway, the book was titled, "Baby We Were Meant for Each Other." It is sort of an "ode" to adoption. He is the father to two girls from China whom him and his wife adopted.

We were at that time in the thick of our fertility treatments and