day four...uh huh....

okay...here we are at the end of day four. It's amazing how much things get a little better each day...and by little, i really mean little...yesterday was the poopie. Today was the eating...a lot...like four full bottles, which then meant a lot of puke...or "spit up" as Huddle calls it. I call it puke. She's getting happier tho', so there's that....now, on with the pictures.

well, day four here, and here's Esther eating a water bottle. It's her main source of vitamin p. As you can see, she has a lovely assortment of bottles from which to choose. We're excellent providers.

Today we took a tour of Green Mountain, where they had this awesomest covered walkway made outta bamboo. It felt soo wonderful to walk on...it was all springy and stuff...almost felt like it was refreshing your feet with each step...or maybe that was just from lack of sleep...well, i sleep the whole night, just like esther, 'sept i wake up every couple of hours, to check to see if she's still breathing...which kinda messes with my REM sleep...ah, well...the price you pay for becoming baba.

Here we are at the famous picture rock. Actually, i don't know if it's famous or not, everyone just had their pictures taken in front of it...lemme check with Huddle, be right back...nope, just a rock.

here's the tower, which we can't really remember the name of, because we're horrible american tourists and stuff. But it's really pretty.

here's the view from said tower...Huddle made me climb all the way to the top...all nine floors or it and stuff...so much for the notion of lazy dad...sigh. With all this exercise i've been doing and the constant sweating, i think i've lost some weight...which is nice...

here's the beautiful lake near the tower...you could feed the fish here, and they'd all come up to the surface and eat...it looked kinda like parahna or however you spell it...i'm tired...sue me.

here's Esther in her new hat we bought her...she's just simply adorable...when she wants to be...she can also be fussy...which is a little tiring...well, mainly because we don't know what to do...we try feeding, no. we check diaper, no. teething maybe? sorta...it's really fun to try and figure out what her different sounds mean. no, really....it's fun.

she loves the mirror. heck, even she knows she looks good...and my legs look so hot. reow!

here we are again looking at her perfect feet. well, we're going to try and put her to bed...wish us luck. Peas out.

Day three as a family...

We're slowly getting to know Esther, her likes and dislikes. She is a great sleeper so far, last night she slept from 8pm to 8am and we had to wake her up again. Tonight she went to bed at 8:30pm and hopefully she'll sleep through the night again. She sleeps more than me (Huddle)!!! And if anyone knows me they know I love to sleep. So far she will only take formula, no other food...but she seems pretty content with that so I'm not too worried. We were very excited today because she had her first poop! Don't want to go into too much detail but she was happier after she did it. Tonight she was a little fussy, but I think it's because she is teething. By the way, she has four teeth (two upper, two lower). She let me brush them today, but wasn't very happy about it. She crawls really well (and very fast), so she keeps us on our toes. She also loves to walk with us holding her hands, although she is a little wobbly. Today we got her to smile a lot, but it's hard to catch on film. We'll keep trying though because she has beautiful dimples.

Today we went to the Minority Museum. Guangxi has about 40 different minority groups. After the museum we went outside to a park where they had some traditional dancing. These three girls performed and were kind enough to let us take a picture with them. They were gorgeous and very friendly...their English was much better than our Chinese! It's really warm here, lots of palm trees and flowers. It was 70 something degrees today.

If you want to check out a video of Esther go to Gene's sight ("inner thinkings of an idjit"). There is a link from this blog.

Day two with Esther

Here's Sleeping Beauty...sleeping. As you can see she likes to suck two of her fingers. She is a great sleeper. She went to be at 10:30 pm and woke up at 7 am (we had to actually wake her because we had to go to the Civil Affairs appointment.)

Here's Daddy and Esther. You'll probably see lots of pictures with Dad and Esther because Mom likes to be in control of the camera; Gene is in charge of the video camera.

Here's Gene in his blanket dress, it's very stylish! We're waiting to go into our interview with the Civil Affairs Officer. She asked us if we wanted to keep Esther, and promise to treat her as our own, and that we wouldn't abandon her. (There's Jeremy Wagner, too, not wearing a dress. )

Here we are with the director of Esther's orphanage after she is officially ours. We were able to ask one of the orphanage staff some questions, which at the time we couldn't think of many. But they did call her Pan Pan, and she likes her formula pretty warm(which Gene figured out).

Her first bath, she loves it!! So far we have been very blessed, she is a very easy-going & loves people. She has already got us wrapped around her little finger.

well, we got her...

day two

This is Sherry, our guide...she completly rocked. Just thought you should know.

This little girl is Gracie, she's soooo freaking adorable. When we were outside on our little treks she had this ski mask on...so, in all of the group photos, she's all mysterious and stuff. And she jumps really high.

This is me at the jade store, where we got Esther a jade dog pendant and a really nice jade bracelett for the wife to hand down to her sometime...we still haven't figured out if we'll do it on her 16th birthday or her wedding or what, but she'll get it someday. yay.

and here is the great wall...huge freaking steps. jelly legs, and a certificate that states something like you're not a man until you go to the great wall...so apparently i'm a man now...good thing too, as i'm going to be a father tomorrow afternoon.

here's the cute couple about to make the small but ardjous trip up the wall.

Here we are on our way up...

..and here we are on our way down...we didn't go that far, just up high enough to become a man apparently...so, anyway...one of us will write tomorrow...with pictures and everything...g'night.

Day one in Beijing...

Tiananmen Square took my breath away... due to the 40 mile/hour wind. It was surreal to be standing in the middle of it.

The Forbidden City was gigantic. I can't imagine being Emperor and not ever being able to leave.

The rocks in the Imperial Garden (Forbidden City).

The frozen Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace area. (See, it is really cold here!) This lake was man-made.

Summer Palace

Summer Palace

We got to see how they make silk, or rather how they "harvest" silk from the silk worm. We even got a souvenir cocoon (with a dried up worm inside)!

Here they are showing us how they make silk comforters. It takes lots of layers and four people to stretch out the "wad" of silk. (Yes, we bought one.)

Here we are at the Peking Duck dinner. There's the Wagners and the Greers.

Ni Hao from Beijing!!!

Things Gene and I have learned so far:
1. Being delayed in Seattle 2 hours due to weather and missing your international flight sucks, because it means 12 hours will be added to your travel time.
2. Being re-routed to Los Angeles from San Francisco then on to Beijing results in lost luggage.
3. Ambien helps you sleep on a plane so that you're able to check in at your hotel 12 hours later than planned at 7:45 am and then go on an all day tour around Beijing without falling asleep once or biting anyone's head off.
4. Beijing is very, very cold...especially when most of your warm gear is in your lost luggage!
5. Knowing 3 or 4 words of Chinese doesn't get you far.
6. Shopping at the Beijing "Walmart" is frustrating because no one can understand you and miming only works 25% of the time.
7. Sherry is a wonderful guide. James is a fearless driver.
8. It's hard to write an interesting blog post when you've had 7 hours sleep in 48 hours.
9. If your lost luggage doesn't show up you may not be able post much more due to not having a power adapter.

Our Itinerary

• Thursday, Dec. 14th: Depart for Beijing
• Friday, Dec. 15th: Arrive in Beijing
• Saturday, Dec. 16th: Beijing sight-seeing: Tiananmen Square, City, & Summer Palace
• Sunday, Dec. 17th: Church service & Great Wall
• Monday, Dec. 18th: Fly to Guangxi, MEET ESTHER!!, Civil Affairs appointment
• Dec. 19th-Dec. 21st: Civil Affairs appointment, paperwork, & sight-seeing
• Friday, Dec. 22nd: Afternoon flight to Guangzhou
• Dec. 23rd-Dec. 25th: Fill out Consulate forms & Esther's medical exam
• Tuesday, Dec. 26th: Consulate appointment at 9:30 am
• Wednesday, Dec. 27th: Pick up Esther's Visa
• Thursday, Dec. 28th: Depart for Beijing, then on to the US

China here we come!!!

We got our official travel authorization today!!!!

We leave for China on Dec. 14th and meet Esther on Dec. 18th! Yipeee!!! We'll have her before Christmas! We are so excited and so freaked out. So much to do...so little time. OK gotta go.

I finally finished Esther's quilt!!!

...with the help of Marilyn, Gene's mom. (Thanks Marilyn!! I couldn't have finished it with out you.)
Here's Audrey enjoying the quilt.










Apparently Sydney and Audrey approve of my first quilting attempt. After this picture was taken they took a catnap on it (hope Esther's not allergic).










This picture has lots of goodies in it...the sweater and hat were knitted by Grandma Marilyn, the two paintings were done by Karin (Stumpytown rocks!), and Grandpa Neil made the bookcase. I am surrounded by very creative people.

No new news...

Still waiting on our travel authorization. We're hoping to find out when we travel by the end of the month. We've got our fingers crossed for the end of December!

My incompetence about being a parent is growing ever more apparent. Here is my big list-o-confusions:
1. I was at the grocery store a while ago and had a freak out because I saw baby oil on the shelf. What is baby oil for? Do I need to buy some? If I do buy some, what do I do with it? Gene had a pretty good laugh at my expense, and then helped me look up what it's for on the internet. Apparently it's for dry skin and I think you kinda use it like lotion.
2. Another conundrum I encountered was why do they not make top sheets for cribs? Are babies so much less civilized than us that they refuse to use them? Are you just supposed to use blankets instead? The only answer I could come up with (yes, the internet again) was that they can be a suffocating hazard which I guess makes sense, but wouldn't blankets cause the same problem? Or is the real issue that babies are never cold when they sleep? I still don't think I've truly grasped the answer to this dilemma.
3. On to what baby clothes to bring to China...how many outfits will she go through in a day? What sizes should I bring? Does she always need to wear a onesy under everything? Are tights mandatory? If she's not walking, does she still need shoes? What if she doesn't like my color palette? What if she doesn't like my style choices? (The good news is that China does have stores!)
4. I have as yet not been able to purchase a bottle for Esther. It's not that I haven't tried about a million times, but have you seen the selection out there? How do I know what nipples she'll like? I can buy the "Drop In System" bottle or the crooked bottle, or the plain standard plastic one. What if the one I buy causes her to get too much air? When I get to the store I just stare until my eyes glaze over and then walk away mumbling to myself.

I know all this stuff will work itself out eventually, mostly with trial and error (hopefully Esther is a very patient baby), it's just that it all gets a little overwhelming at times. Luckly I have my laid back husband to keep me grounded.

Esther turns 9 months old today!

Or I guess really it would have been yesterday since she's in China. But I'm celebrating it today by thinking good thoughts about her all day, oh wait...I do that every day! Maybe I'll stop procrastinating and finish her sweater.
This morning, we had a conference call with Esther's pediatrician who specializes in adoption medicine. According to his expert opinion she is lovely! And her health is not bad either! She does appear to be iron deficient, but is not anemic. She was most likely born on Feb. 7, 2006, because they could tell that from the umbilicial cord (oh and she might have had a conehead when they found her). She's gaining weight and growing. She is also hitting the right milestones for one living in an orphanage. So overall, she looks pretty healthy, which is great news. Of course, when we return home with her, she'll have to undergo a battery of tests to make sure nothing was missed.

Are you ready for the cuteness to continue?

Gene and I think she has a mixture of his hair and mine. She has a widow's peak like Gene used to have and she has my wild frizzy hair. She also has my chin dimple and I think that slightly vacant expression comes from Gene (ha ha).

According to her medical exam she likes to suck her fingers when she sleeps, laughs out loud, knows her name, imitates sounds, is active and restless. She likes to listen to music, play with her toys, and play games (which is a must in our house). Being fond of quietness apparently is not one of her qualities, which should be fun for me!

Another fast Esther fact is that her Chinese name mean "little" (Xiao) and "hopeful" (Pan).

Look who we have here...

Introducing Esther Xiao Pan Blakefield!!! (We're still debating if her middle name should be spelled Xiaopan). Not that I'm biased or anything but I have to say my daughter is pretty darn cute!!

This picture is from an email that our agency sent. We should be getting the Fedex package any time now which should include one more picture and more detailed info on her. So far the abbreviated health history we got looks really good! (P.S. Gene and I are parents. Hee hee!)

Call us Momma and Papa!

We got "the call" this morning at 9:20 am. We are officially parents of a little girl!! Her name is Jin Xiao Pan (Jin is her last name) and she was born on February 7, 2006. Right now she is at the Guiping Social Welfare Institute in Guangxi. The only other thing we know right now is that on July 30 she weighed 14.8 lbs, was 24.8 inches tall, and had a head and chest circumference of 16.9 inches. She will soon be named Esther Xiao Pan Blakefield.
Tomorrow we will receive her picture! I can't wait to see her! Our adoption coordinator says that her hair is standing straight up with "bed head," which is fitting because her mommy(as I type this) has bed head too! She already takes after me.
If you want to check out some pictures of Guangxi province, here is a link: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/picture/guangxi/index.htm. It's beautiful! And we get to go there in December (fingers crossed).
Well, that's all I can tell you for now, but check back tomorrow and you can see her little face!

Still waiting...

Looks like we won't get a referral in October after all. But hopefully we'll get one soon...lots of rumors flying around that it may be at the end of this week. Happy Halloween everyone!

So maybe next Monday?

No referral this week. I know it has to happen sooner or later, right? To keep myself a little busy I have been frequenting a great adoption blog: http://salsainchina.blogspot.com/. This family is in China right now adopting their twin girls. See-it does happen!

Waiting...

...waiting ever so patiently (well, more like biting my nails). We should be getting our referral in the next week or two, and of course we're hoping for NEXT WEEK! This means all next week we'll be checking email and getting butterflies whenever our phone rings. It's been such a long wait that I can't really believe it's this close. I'll have to keep myself really busy so I don't feel so anxious. So the next time you hear from me hopefully we'll have a photo.

Here's what's on the China Center of Adoption Affairs website:

"The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before August 9, 2005."

So I think we should be in good shape to get a referral at the end of October! Yeah! One more month to go. As the wait is drawing to a close I'm getting more ansy but I'll have to be patient 'cuz there's nothing else I can do.

Some Goodies...

Here's the cool highchair my dad made for Esther, it fits perfectly at our table.

My grandma made a cloth ABC book for me when I was little so I decided to make one for Esther. I cross-stitched it.

Here's the inside.

I loved Holly Hobbie when I was little (and still do) so I made this picture for my daughter.

Here's another picture I did for her.

Looks like my prediction is still true...

so far the delay hasn't increased anymore, yeah! But it also hasn't gotten any shorter, oh well.
On another note, I am now officially a housewife...which means our apartment is really clean. As of yet, I haven't felt very creative, so I've mainly just been cleaning. The nice thing is that I haven't gotten too bored. I think Gene is a little jealous, but it's helping him build more character which is important (hee hee).
Once I get the creative juices flowing, I hope to finish up what I can on Esther's quilt, and then head over to my mother-in-law Marilyn's house to take advantage of her quilting expertise.
When I can get Gene to help me upload pictures I will post some of the things I've made for Esther so far.

All I want for Christmas is...Esther!

This was on China Center of Adoption Affairs website this morning:

"The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before September 30, 2005.
The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before June 28, 2005."

What does this mean? To put it simply...the way things are moving we won't get to bring Esther home until December. Maybe things will pick up, maybe they'll slow down...welcome to the joy of adopting from China!

I have senioritis!

I have officially entered my last month of work! I am trying not to dwell on the fact that I only have 19 days, 1 hour, and 29 minutes left, but as you can see I am not having much luck. Don't get me wrong, I've loved my job but I am ready to be done.
What am I going to do while I wait for Esther? Drive myself crazy and enjoy every minute of it! (well, at least until I get really, really bored...) Hopefully I will be productive and get lots of projects done (some reading, some quilting, some knitting, some cross-stitching, some painting, some cleaning, etc.), but since I'm a procrastinator I probably won't get nearly as much done as I should.

More delays...

Ugh...I just got an email from our adoption coordinator and it seems that referrals are taken even longer than expected. I don't have any exact time frame of course but if our adoption agency finds out any concrete info I will post it here.
On a good note, I think this means that either a lot of families are wanting to adopt thus more babies are finding homes, or there aren't as many babies available which is means not as many are being abandoned. Either of these factors would increase the delay. As much as I my heart is set on adopting from China, if I found out tomorrow that there were no more babies available because their birth families are keeping them, I would be glad.