Thanks so much for visiting us during our journey, Steve, Patty, Caleb, Danae (daughter-in-law), Logan, Drew and Annika!
For this child I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of Him.
So I have also dedicated her to the Lord; as long as she liveth she is dedicated to the Lord. I Samuel 1:27 - 28
Hello from Guangzhou. We had a pretty easy day today. We did not have to be anywhere til 2:30, so we were able to get some rest in the early morning and just go at our own pace.
I have not been able to give Annika a bottle since we received her. She is not on a sippy cup either though. So I was a bit concerned of what to give her for nourishment. She does not like textured foods at all. Well, except cheerios. We will put texture in her mouth and in a split second you will see it coming out on the tip of her tongue. At breakfast this morning I was on a mission to find something, anything that she would eat. The report said she ate the Chinese Congee which is a very bland like rice cereal of sorts I guess. Nope, she had nothing to do with it.
I went over to the scrambled eggs section and spotted the oatmeal and brown sugar and grabbed a yogurt and YES!!! we were getting somewhere. She could not eat quick enough. So on my way out the door from the restaurant I grabbed 4 yogurts and put some oatmeal in her empty yogurt container.
We have a complete free day tomorrow and we are going to take a cab to the Friendship store and get some baby food with no texture and see where we get with that. Our guide says the formula has no nutrience and it's okay that she's not taking it.
She is starting to wrap her arms around our necks and just loves to snuggle. She is opening up so much and we've even seen some giggles and smiles when tickling her. Alot of the babies will only go to one parent, that's very normal. Annika will hold her arms out to me or Steve and she is perfectly fine with whomever.
We went to the Police Station today for our very important Adoption Decree and then off to Pizza Hut. WOW!! was I excited. It was bad, the meat did not taste like ours and I was so disappointed. Back to McDonald's tomorrow for me again. So we are in Pizza Hut and I thought we were out of squatty potty land. Nope, wrong. I walk into 5 stalls of squatty potties. No toilet paper in hand and then look for the handicapped one, yes, a normal potty. Sit down look around, no toilet paper. Get back up, go into Pizza Hut and borrow paper from a fellow traveler. Are we the only ones that wipe. Mission Accomplished. Note to self...put toilet paper back in diaper bag.
We got POO POO....I am sorry, but this is a big deal for these little girls. We are completely changing their diets and it is very difficult for them. We did use a baby enema and after two bolders coming out, we were good to go.
I can't remember if I posted this before, but Annika got ahold of a blue chapstick that we brought and she has not let it go since. Everytime the rest of our travel group sees us they make sure she still has it and yep, she does. She will tuck it under her chin and then put her two fingers in her mouth to suck and then take her pointer finger on her other hand and rub her top lip. Too cute.
Annika took her first bath last night and did fine. A few whimpers and we made it a quick one, but nothing major like some of the babies were.
As you can see from the pictures she does not mind the hair bows at all. I was so excited for that. I could never get the boys to wear them :0) She does not have enough hair yet for the barrettes but that will come. If anyone finds anymore with the elastic band that is like pantyhose material please get them for me. Meighan Fu Kibbee gave me hers before we left because she does not like them and they are my favorite.
She is still sleeping all night long. Boy I hope that stays the same when we get home. She fusses about a minute to take a nap and then down she goes and out like a light bulb.
I wanted to thank everyone for the nice e-mails. I can not get our web site from here, but I am getting the e-mails and they mean alot. Homesickness is not too bad for me yet. I think it was worse just getting me over here. But hearing from everyone is so great. If I do not respond to your e-mail please do not be offended...time does not always allow.
We have been able to Skype video cam our boys and my mom a couple of times now at our house and they've been able to see Annika and that has helped us alot. And we've Skyped the Kibbees also and little Meighan waves and kisses Annika.
Enjoy the pictures for the day. The hotel is 5 star and it is so decorated for Christmas. In the evening they have a 5 string quartet in the lobby playing Christmas music. Too cool.
