Home for a week

This week has gone by in a blur, but we are starting to settle into a routine.  Quincy's finally starting to sleep through the night, although mama and baba are still having a hard time with our sleep schedules...
 
Top ten things we've learned about Quincy in the last three weeks.
 
1.  Things are more fun if mama or baba (preferably both) is watching.
2.  He doesn't like pistachio ice cream.
3.  Cats are acceptable only if Quincy approaches them, NOT when they come up to him.
4.  He REALLY doesn't like to get his blood drawn. 
5.  He is scared to be alone at night.
6.  He loves yogurt.
7.  He REALLY loves cars. 
8.  He loves playing in water and in sandboxes.
9.  He's doesn't really know how to play with other kids yet. (He's not used to interacting with them as equals, so it's all kind of new.
10. We are madly in love with this little boy.
 
Things Quincy has learned:
1. If he says he has to go to the bathroom, he can get out of the current unpleasant activity for a moment.  (Like going to bed, waiting in the boring doctor's office, etc.)
2. If he acts like he's going to cry, he is more likely to get his way.  (Mama and Baba are working to correct that one...)
3. Pancakes are amazing.  They turn from powder to liquid to solid, which is truly an amazing miracle of nature.
4. Playing in sprinklers is VERY cool.
5. Heaven exists (in the form of Toys R Us)
6. He can sometimes get out of disciplinary situations by using English words in his cute little accent and showing how much he's learned...  
7. Watching himself on video is more fun than watching other movies or TV.
8. Picking and eating his own food from the garden (a cucumber) is really neat.
9. If he asks to watch movies (Cars or Piglet's Big Movie) for long enough, mama and baba will probably get tired and give in.
10.  Mama and Baba will come running whenever he needs/wants them...

Home Sweet Home!

I can't believe it's already Monday morning.  I've lived the last few days in a fog.  Jet lag going TO China was almost non-existent.  Jet lag coming home has reared it's ugly head in an unbelievably forceful way...
 
The flight home was what I have to consider my first true initiation into parenting.  Quincy didn't sleep much at all.  He dozed for about an hour on the 5 hour flight from Guangzhou to Tokyo, and was ready to be done traveling when we got to Tokyo. Before we left China, we had Richard explain to him that we were taking an airplane to America.   But we forgot to have him explain the concept of a layover.  When we were landing in Tokyo, Quincy kept saying "Mei Guo" (America).  My Chinese isn't good enough to explain that we had to get on another airplane for 9 more hours before we would be in America.  He was bitterly disappointed to have to get on another airplane.
 
He had his first breakdown about an hour into the flight from Tokyo to Seattle.  He sobbed and cried for about half and hour and was inconsolable.  The poor little guy was SO tired.  I thought he would cry himself to sleep.  I was wrong.  He didn't fall asleep until a couple of hours before we landed.  The first 7 hours of that flight were miserable for everyone involved, and no one was allowed to sleep. 
 
Dan and Tracy and Emily (Bridget's cousin, his wife and their daughter) met us at the airport along with Grandma and Grandpa O'Connell.  We came home and Quincy got his first taste of his new life.  He loved the swing set in the back yard, and when we showed him his room, he promptly made several trips up and down the stairs, to bring ALL of the Tiggers down to the living room.  I don't think he understands yet that everything in the bedroom is for him.  Since all of the adults were hanging out downstairs, I think he felt like he had to bring everything down to show that he was claiming it or something...
 
He also met the cats.  He seems intrigued by Moo and scared of Trumpet.  Moo is old, and possibly the most sedintary cat in the universe.  Trumpet is normally pretty skittish.  Quincy seems curious about the cats, but only on his own terms.  He wants to go up to them, and not the other way around. Trumpet jumped up onto Quincy's bed, to cuddle up at night, and Quincy was pretty scared by him.  It's gonna take some time for him to get used to having animals around.
 
Quincy's sleep schedule is definitely hard wired into him, so he has NOT wanted to sleep at night here, since his biological clock says that it's daytime.  We've been trying to keep him up during the day so he will sleep at night.  So far, it hasn't really worked.  I think he got about 3 hours of sleep last night, and daddy and I got about the same.  Hopefully we'll all be so tired tonight that we just pass out for about 10-12 hours. :)
 
Love and peace,
Bridget
 
 

Our last day in China!!!

Well, It's 8:30 AM here on Friday morning, and I just checked in online for our flight home tomorrow morning.  We will spend the day doing last minute shopping, packing and going to the consulate to take our oath and make Quincy a US citizen.  We are so glad to be going home.  It's been real.  It's been fun.  But we're MORE than ready to come home.  Our flight gets in to SeaTac at 8:45AM on Saturday.  It's flight number NW 8 from Tokyo.  People are welcome to meet us, but I can't promise that we will be in the best state of mind, if we have minds left at all after 17+ hours in airports and on airplanes... And I have no idea how long it may take to get through customs, so you may end up waiting a bit for us.  But I think we'll be very excited to see everyone!
 
I've posted some more pics that have been typical of our journey here... Hope you enjoy them!
 
Bridget
 

2 days to go

Well, it is Wed, 7:45pm in sticky Guangzhao.  Bridget is upstairs watching Winnie with the boy hoping that he goes to sleep quickly tonight.  We had a LONG day.
Yesterday we arrived here after a short and fairly painless flight. The boy was pretty good. He didn't cry or throw a fit. He mainly watched out the window till we were in the air. Then he figured out that the tray in front of him came down and went back up. That was a great game for him for most of the rest of the flight. He had a blast. I don't think the woman in front of him did, but...
After we got settled into the room here, we decided to take the boy swimming. He had apparently never been. We got his lil trunks on and his blow-up float ring and headed to the pool on the roof. He got to the roof, looked at the pool and promptly fell in. Luckily daddy was already 1/2 in when he slipped and he was shortly above water. He was a bit scared, but didn't cry to get out or anything. Just shivered a bit, but was shortly enjoying himself.
We had bought him some goggles to swim with, but he didn't seem to like them when in the water. Out of the water was a different story. He decided to wear them this morning when we were walking the 2 blocks from the hotel to the medical exam.  We have no idea what he was thinking, but he sure seemed to have a blast. We just called him goggle boy for the day.
After the exam, we took him to the oldest temple in the city. We had him blessed by a monk there. It was pretty cool. He stood there quietly listening to him chant the prayer. It was actually pretty moving. We have video of it, but can't attach it here, so just email and we can send it if you want, or just come over to the video night I am sure we will have when we get home. Just think, crummy home movies of our memories shown in our theatre in the back yard. Heck we can annoy our friends on a 100inch screen! We totally rock!
The rest of the day was pretty much just hanging out at the hotel. We met another family that is from Kirkland, I think. They are a floor below us. They have just adopted a very cute, nearly 2 year old girl. We hope to hang with them again soon.  Bridget and my mom and the boy went to the park behind the hotel where they played. He had fun going on the slide, from what I heard. I was off with Richard buying daddy some toys.  Richard couldn't understand how I could spend so much money on dolls. Silly man, they aren't dolls, they are action figures!
 
Well, it is time to go up and see if mama got him to sleep or if Winnie is winning...
 
The Laflins.
 

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

Well, it is 8:15am in Kunming. We are leaving here to go to the airport for the boy's 1st plane trip. It is, thankfully, a short one. Only 2hours. Plus we have Richard there to try and explain what is going on. We have the DVD player charged, and his Winnie dvd at the ready. We hope that he will eat, watch some "winnie" and then we will be there, in hot, sticky, Guangzhao.
Richard, our guide and amazing friend, has helped a lot with trying to explain things to Quincy. He does a great job of helping with that without being too involved in the bonding with us and Q. Richard says he has a hard time understanding the boy as well. he says that Q speaks a combo of Mandrin, the local dialect and now mixed in with some English... whoopie! 
Ok, so, we are off to the airport, or at least to the room to try and convince the boy that once his toy goes into a bag, it will come out again. OOFDAH!

The Laflins

Our last day in Kunming

 
Well, we definitely have a boy!  We bought him some blocks (like Duplos) and the first thing he made, without any help, was a machine gun. Which he promptly used to shoot Mama, Grandma, and everything else in the room. Then Baba came into the room and he was shot as well.  I left the room for a few minutes and when I came back, the machine gun had a clip and a sight added on to it.  I have a feeling that the embellishments didn't come from Quincy's imagination...  I'm betting that the pistol that Baba was using to shoot back with was made by bigger hands as well...
 
This morning Richard took us to the bronze palace.  It was a palace that belonged to one of China's most famous traitors.  That's about as much of the history lesson as I was able to absorb because I was chasing Quincy around  to prevent him from falling down all of the steep steps and from jumping off the edges of the terraces down the side of the mountain.  I think Jason and Jan may have actually had a chance to learn something... :)
 
Oh yeah, Baba also bought him a little wooden sword at the palace, which he tried to use as a gun...  He'd point it at the woods and make shooting sounds.  At first Quincy was saying that he would use the sword to kill the bad people.  Later on after he tried to hit Mama and Baba with it a couple of times and learned that wasn't acceptable, he started to let it bang against his legs as we were walking.  Richard asked why he was doing that, and he said that if he can't hit other people with it, he will just hit himself. I guess you can't argue with logic...
 
Overall Quincy's been great (as long as he gets his nap!) and we feel truly blessed to have this amazing boy in our lives. 
 
We fly back to Guangzhou tomorrow morning and then home a few days after that...  I have to say I'm very relieved.  This hotel living is for the birds!!!! China is beautiful, but there really is no place like home.  We're really looking forward to getting home and figuring out what our real life will be like with our son. 
 
Love always,
Bridget

Sunday in Kunming

Well, we haven't posted in a few days, so I figured I would head down to the business center and give it a try.
Saturday we went to a place called the "World expo-garden" or something of the like. It was basically a bunch of gardens from around China and some "typical" gardens from around the rest of the world. It was kinda neat for the adults, the boy... not as much. We did hire a tram car thing to drive us from site to site. That was the best idea of the day. Quincy LOVES being in a car, or on anything moving. I just hope that he likes being on an airplane. He will be on one for a LONG time soon. It is a good thing there is a small 2hr flight from Kunming to Guangzhao on tuesday. It will introduce the boy to flying, plus Richard will be there to translate if needed. Anyway, attached is a pic of a "huge bowl" we saw. If I can say one thing of the Chinese, they are literal. :)

The Expo trip was shortened because of rain. It began to rain around 11am and it was just in time, because the boy seemed to be loosing interest in flowers of the world, for some crazy reason.  So, we packed it in and headed to a restaurant we had head of that was supposed to be known for their pizza and american food. I think it was called Wei's or something of the like, Bridget would know for sure if you are interested. We ordered pizza, noodles, rice and drinks. My mom seemed happy because she finally had a diet coke with some ice. We noticed only after leaving that they had a menu item consisting of "4 local bugs". Richard said that we could go back before we leave... I am excited, my mom, not as much.
 
Sunday we went to a park where we walked around more. It seems to be a theme here. I think that our guide is just trying to keep us out of trouble. Quincy seems to do ok for about an hour, but then starts to show he is bored. We left the park and drove to a "big lake" the name escapes me for the moment. It was fine, there were folks fishing, but I really don't think I would want to eat the fish they caught. The lake wasn't exactly pristine. They had bikes to rent, but with the boy being a bit antsy, we decided to pass. We then went to find some housing that was being built. Richard wanted to show us how the other half lives in Kunming. Apparently all the real estate out by the lake is where the rich folk live, or at least buy houses.  We went into a typical condo. Apparently in China when you buy a house, it comes pretty much as bare as you can imagine. No floors, wall coverings, fixtures, bathroom stuff, nothing, literally nothing... The real estate person didn't view the condo with us, apparently it wasn't worth her time, so we just wandered around. After that we came back to the hotel and I went to get american food at the restraunt across the street from us, called the Blue Bird. This was no less than my 6th trip there since we came to Kunming. The food is decent, cheap and close. The girl at the front sees me coming and just looks at me and says "take away", I nod and she fetches a menu.
 
Ok, my time is short, the boy should be asleep by now and I have a hot game of cards waiting when I return. Hope ya'll are doing well, and sorry there are not more updates. It is hard to get away, and loading pictures on this computer takes FOREVER... I am now just killing time, waiting for the last one to load... Still loading... so, what's new? How's the weather in Seattle... How are the wife and kids... Ok, there it goes.  Night all, and pleasant dreams from Kunming!
 
The Laflins
 

Friday Morning

This morning Quincy talked to Grandma and Grandpa O'Connell on the phone.  Being the technophile that he is, it was great fun.  He babbled at them in Chinese, which none of us understood, but they got a kick out of hearing his voice, and he was pointing at their photos while he was talking to them, so I think he understood who he was talking to.  When Grandpa said bye bye, Quincy repeated "bye bye".
 
He's actually responding to his new name already.  He recognizes it, even if he doesn't use it.  Sometimes when we say "Quincy", he will say "Quincy XinYan" or "Quincy Wu XinYan".  He also recognizes "no" and "yes" and repeats lots of English words.  He'll be fluent in no time!  He's a genius, I'm telling you.
 
His current favorite "toy" is the portable DVD player.  So far the only thing he's been able to watch are the DVDs to learn English that we got for him, but he's watching them OVER AND OVER.  I will never be able to get those songs out of my head...  Oh well, I guess it's better than Barney!
 
Today we went to visit the orphanage where Quincy grew up. It was a very clean place. It wasn't at all what might be expected when thinking of an orphanage. We got a tour from one of the lovely women who worked in the office there. She took us around to see all the places that Quincy would have been on a day to day basis. We saw where he slept, where he ate, and where he would have played. There were not very many children there when we went. The guide said that most of the children were out in foster care. Most of the children who actually stayed there were the ones with very acute special needs. They had several workers who were with the children, physical therapists and caretakers in general.

After that, we left and went to the hospital where Quincy was found. He was apparently there for quite some time after being abandoned.  Apparently they were waiting for the parents to come back.  It was a very busy place. There were children and parents everywhere. That is kind of how China is in general. It is a beautiful place, but being from a big open place like MN or SD, it seems like people are just everywhere you look. Anyway, the hospital was not a place where we wanted to stay for very long, so we took a few pictures and left.
 
The first 2 pictures are outside the orphanage, the 3rd is at the hospital and the final one is Quincy falling asleep next to mama on the ride between the 2. :)

All in all it has been a great trip. We are impressed over and over with Quincy's understanding of things he really shouldn't have any understanding of. He loves to fiddle with everything. I am surprised he has not taken apart our DVD player and converted it to HighDef yet. Oh well, there is always tomorrow.
 
Take care ya'll and we will post again soon, assuming the boy ever takes a nap. :)


The Laflins

 

Thursday morning

Mama is not doing so well this AM.  (If descriptions of physical illness upset you, skip to the next paragraph).  I had diarrhea last night and took some Imodium, but I just couldn't eat this morning due to the nausea.  No fever, just really upset stomach... 
 
Baba and Nai Nai  went with Quincy and Richard (our guide) to the notary office and a museum this morning and left mama to get some rest.  I just woke up from a nap, and plan to take another one when Quincy goes down this afternoon.  I'm feeling a bit better, and I'm sure I'll be fine, so don't worry about me.  It's probably just mild food poisoning and lack of rest.
 
I wanted to post the most precious moments that come to mind, so far in our journey:
 
When we were at the zoo, he was playing bubbles with Baba and I was looking the other direction.  He called out "Mama, look at XinYan and Baba!"  Of course it was in Chinese, but I knew exactly what he meant...  It's so cool that he wants us both to be involved in the fun.  He really does seem to be taking to each of us equally.  Mama's emerging as the disciplinarian, and Baba's definitely the more fun one.  But we all play individually and alone, and it's been great.  He will listen to me a bit better than Jason, because Jason's a bit of a pushover for that impish little grin...
 
Last night when I put him to bed, he didn't want to sleep in the little bed (mattress from Grandma's room that was moved to the floor in our room).  He wanted to sleep in the big bed.  So I let him sleep in the big bed.  Jason decided not to move him and slept in the little bed, so Quincy and I were sleeping in the big bed together.  This morning, when he was all groggy and just beginning to wake up, he rolled over into me and cuddled for about 15 minutes.  It was SO AMAZING!!!  He's taking to us far better than could be expected.  We couldn't be happier.
 
Tomorrow, we're planning to see the orphanage and possibly the hospital where Quincy was found as a baby.  Should be a BIG day!
 
Love always,
Bridget

Lots of firsts for Quincy!!!

Well, Wednesday is almost officially over.  I finally got Quincy to sleep.  He took a long nap today, so wasn't too tired tonight at bedtime.  He and baba are upstairs in bed, so I have some quiet time to actually post. No pictures tonight though.  They take a long time to upload on this computer and I need to sleep at some point too.
 
We woke up this morning and had breakfast in the hotel dining room. In our hotel room, Quincy seemed hungry, but he was pretty intimidated by the restaurant and kept saying that he wasn't hungry anymore, so that we would not sit down at the table.  Once we got him sitting down with food in front of him, he changed his tune and ate like a horse.   We just need to keep an eye on him so that he doesn't choke.  He crams all of his food in his mouth, so that he can barely chew, rather than chewing one bite and swallowing it.  He eats very fast, like the food will be taken away, and isn't picky at all.  He pretty much eats whatever we put in front of him.  He makes faces if he doesn't like the taste, but he'll still eat it...  I'm sure all of that is the result of being in the orphanage with no food choices, and limited portions.  He also drinks a LOT of water, which means he's peeing every 30 minutes or so, but he's really good about using the bathroom by himself, if he knows where it is, or letting us know that he needs to go, if he doesn't know where the bathroom is.   He slept through the night with no problems last night too.
 
We went to the zoo this morning, and the animals were interesting to him, but not nearly as cool as the little bubble gun we bought for him.  It's one that runs on batteries.  You dip it in soap bubbles, pull the trigger, and it blows bubbles.  He went through almost the entire bottle of bubbles today.  Luckily we have more.  I'll need to get more batteries soon though. :)

This afternoon, we went shopping for shoes and clothes.  Most of the clothes we brought were a little to big. He's a skinny boy, but with the way he's been eating around us, that will probably change soon... He got Spiderman tennis shoes and some sandals.  Both light up when he steps on them.  He loves the lights, and I'm afraid that he's going to run into things all the time now, since he just stares at his feet and doesn't watch where he's going when he walks.
 
Today was a much better day than yesterday.  Quincy is already learning to trust us.  He actually let baba carry his precious backpack while we were out today.  His backpack now has his medicine, photos, cars, book, bubble gun, bubbles, Kleenex and water. He won't go anywhere without his stuff.  I think his carry-on luggage is already packed!  I think he's scared to lose his things and is always unsure if we will be coming back, so he feels like he has to take everything with him. 
 
Overall, he's been great.  He's very energetic and curious, but also pretty willing to listen when necessary.  Even though we have VERY rudimentary language skills in Mandarin, and he speaks a mixture of the local dialect and Mandarin, we've been communicating pretty well.  I wish I knew what he was saying when he is trying to tell me things, but we've got the basics figured out.  Tonight when I was giving him his bath, he was just jabbering away about something, but I have no earthly idea what.  We bought a DVD called "English Gifted Child", which is for teaching Chinese children English.  He watched part of one of them, and was singing along to some of the songs, so I think he'll get it soon enough.  He'll often repeat words after us, too, even though I'm pretty sure he has no idea what they mean...  The only English word he's used independently so far is "yah".  (as in the Minnesotan pronunciation of "yeah").  Thanks to Grandma Jan, Jason and I must have slipped back into our MN accents.  Oh well, I guess there are worse things. :)
 
Time for bed now.  Tomorrow we plan to go to the notary office, a cultural museum of some sort, and the bookstore.  Should be a fun busy day!  Hopefully I'll have time to post again.
 
Love and peace,
Bridget

FW: Adoption Day!!!!

Well, it is Wed morning here in Kunming. We made it through the 1st full day with our son.

Man, where to begin. We met him at 9am in some notary office. We arrived 1st, and sat at a big official looking table where we waited to hear the patter of little feet. Our guide, and an amazing person, Richard gave us the standard speech about what to expect, which was basically... expect anything. He had met Quincy several weeks before and he said that he was a shy lil guy. So, obviously, that is what we expected. Well, as is the Laflin luck... he was just about anything but. We were there at the big official table when Richard, looking out the window said... "Here they come, I can see his feet". Well, the butterflies turned to dragons and Bridget and I gripped each other's hands to the point of lack of circulation.  We heard his little voice wafting up through the stairs coming up to the room. We finally saw him in the doorway. This perfect little boy, cute as a button, and with an angelic look on his face. He saw us, and his nanny said something we couldn't understand to him punctuated with the words we DID understand, mama and baba. Well, he saw us, and started over to us, guided by his nanny. It was love at first sight. He fell head over heels in love with the several cars we had sitting on the big scary table in front of us. He hopped up on a chair about 3X his size and began to play. I think I was the first to crash the cars with him, them mama had a turn, then mama and grandma, then me, then back again. He was having a great time. I don't think he fully knew what was going on, but heck, he had cars and a spiderman fanny pack to put them in.  Oh, and he had his medication. He apparently had a bit of a cold. So, he came with the clothes on his back and a box of meds. He must have been told that these were  VERY important, because he is still carrying them close to him this morning and he literally fell asleep with them clutched in his hands last night.
There is SO much to tell, but the computer is 1 yuan per minute, so some will have to wait. However, I can say that the boy is doing well. Yesterday was a bit of a task. Remember when I said above we were told that he was shy... well, he wasn't. He was anything but. He was a little whirlwind of energy. After we got all the official stuff over with, and then went to the police station to get his passport photos we finally made it back to the hotel. He was so interested in EVERYTHING electronic. I kid you not, he is a genius I think. He is not even 4 years old and he already can remove and replace a battery in a little flashing pin thing that grandma got. It has 2 small watch type batteries and will only blink if they are both stacked the right side up and pressed against the switch thingy. He totally had that figured out instantly. I didn't even figure it out that quickly. He tore up the room a bit exploring, but he seemed to be having fun.
One of his favorite things he has is those pictures. I don't know if he has ever seen his picture before, but he seemes to be very fond of it. He is carrying around the extra passport photos in a little back pack we bought him at Wal-Mart. He watched the video of himself we took when we 1st met. He was amazed. He kept watching it saying "that XinYan is stealing water" and "what is he doing" it was SO cute. I think we got some video of him watching himself. Man, it blows the mind...

Well, We are off to the zoo today so I will end this here. Sorry it is all over the place, but that is what 3 hours sleep 2 nights in a row will do. And William, I know, you told me so... rub it in as you like...

The Laflins/Wooten... OUT.

Countdown: 25 hours until we meet Quincy!

So, we're still in Guangzhou (at least for another couple of hours).  We've already done some fun stuff.  On Saturday, we met up with a guide Jason met in his online action figure group, who took us to the Guangzhou wholesale toy district as well as several other places that sold action figures.  I think it was Jason's nirvana....  Then we walked around the area near our hotel a little and got Thai food for dinner.  It was excellent.  I think it was the restaurant everyone told us about...  I played a game with some people in the park behind the hotel.  It was kind of like hackey sack. but the thing you kicked around has feathers on it, so it's more buoyant.  Jason has it on video, but I don't know how to post that to the blog.
 
On Sunday Richard arranged for us to go to a tourist attraction in a city a couple of hours from Guangzhou.  It was a couple of different theme parks that depicted China's different regions.  Kind of like "It's a small world" but without the annoyingly repetitive song, and instead of different countries, it was different areas of China.   They had replicas of the different minority houses, costumes, etc. And some shows and exhibits. It was beautiful, but VERY HOT.  I bought an umbrella to shield me from the sun and drank like 6 bottles of water, but I still started to get sick from the heat after about 3 hours, so we didn't get through the whole park.
 
We were almost the only Westerner's at the park and lots of people stared and pointed and smiled. But overall, people were very friendly.  We tried our Chinese, and they tried out their English.  Lots of little kids would come up to us and say "hi" or "hello" and then laugh and run away...  It was pretty fun.  We also had our first "squatty potty" experience at the park, and I'm happy to say that we all survived with a minimum of trauma.  Jan commented that she was going to have to start doing deep knee bends to practice getting up.  It was definitely a cultural experience. 
 
Well, pretty soon, we'll get on a plane to Kunming and my next post will almost definitely include pictures of our new family.  We're thinking of all of you, and are so excited!!!
 
Bridget

We're in China!!!

Well, we made it!  I don't have much to post, but wanted you all to know that we are safe and sound in our hotel in Guangzhou.  The Victory is beautiful.  We have a business suite, which has a sitting room and a bed room.  We got a rollaway for Jan in the sitting room area, so it's almost like we each have our own room.  This computer is in room, so that's nice and convenient, and we have 1 1/2 bathrooms.  That's 1/2 bath more than we have at home, so we're really living in luxury!
 
The flights were pretty uneventful.  Just very long.  But customs was a breeze, and there wasn't any traffic to speak of, so we were in our beds at the hotel by midnight.
 
We are meeting a guide at noon to go to the "toy street" where Jason can gaze at action figures to his heart's content...  I don't think he'll buy any today, since we'll be back in Guangzhou at the end of our trip and he can buy them at that time.  No sense in lugging all that stuff all over China, right?
 
Anyway, I'll post more when we have seen/done more.  Hopefully I won't melt in the heat.  (It was 90 degrees and HUMID when we arrived at 10PM last night, so I can't wait to see what the weather is like today.)
 
Bridget

Leaving for China TODAY!!!

The primary reason for this post is so that you could all see the fabulous picture of Trumpet trying to hide out in our suitcase.  I was re-packing last night and he kept hopping into the bag.  Do you think he wants to come with us?
 
We are leaving this afternoon, and are pretty much out of our minds with excitement.  I didn't go to bed until after midnight.  Those of you who know me, know that is WAY past my bedtime...  Then I woke up at 4:30 AM and couldn't get back to sleep.  We don't leave until almost 3PM and Jason and Jan are still sleeping, so I have some time to kill.  The result of this insomnia is several blog postings all at once, including a silly-cute cat picture!  They better wake up soon, or I may end up posting even sillier pictures...
 
Bridget

Quincy's Room

Some of you have asked for pictures of Quincy's room, so here ya go!  This is the second of at least three entries on the same day, but I can't sleep and I have time to kill before we leave this afternoon, since we're all packed and ready to go.  Besides, y'all need something to tide you over until you see pictures of us with Quincy!
 
The bed is really comfy.  At least Moo seems to think so... :)
 
Bridget

Quincy Quilt (100 Good Wishes Quilt)

To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is a tradition in the northern part of China to make a Bai Jia Bei, or "100 Good Wishes Quilt."  It is a custom to invite 100 people to contribute a single square patch of cloth.  The 100 patches are sewn together into a quilt that contains the luck, energy, and good wishes from all the family and friends who contributed a piece of fabric.  The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation.   In addition to the traditional squares of fabric, we also had everyone write a wish for Quincy, which we scanned into the computer and Kittie printed on fabric to become part of the quilt.
 
Brian's mom, Kittie, took a big pile of mismatched fabric pieces donated by our friends and family, and a CD-ROM filled with wishes and turned them into a fabulous quilt that is SO BEAUTIFUL!!!
 
If any of you want to have quilts made, I strongly recommend giving her a call.  She owns Cutting Edge Quiltworks in Chandler. AZ.  The address is 1949 W. Ray Rd
Chandler, AZ 85224.  And her phone number is: 480-857-3443.
 
I tried to take some better pictures of the AMAZING quilt that you all helped me make, but the pictures just don't do it justice.  It is an amazing piece of art, and it makes me get all misty eyed every time I start looking at it. 
 
Thank you all for your help in creating this wonderful keepsake for our family. It means so much to us that you have been so supportive throughout this journey.  We couldn't have gotten this far without you all and we are eternally grateful.  I'm sure that Quincy will treasure the quilt and I can't wait to introduce him to all of the amazing people who helped to create it.
 
Bridget