Computer Bobbles

Well after spending an hour with tech support last night which still left us with no internet connection, it is finally working this morning.  We are patiently waiting in our room for a call from our guides from our adoption agency who are at the U.S. consulate as I write this.  They are presenting all our documents to be approved to let us bring Laine home to Ohio. They are representing 5 families today. I there are any questions or problems they will give us a call so we have to stay by the phone.  They say they should be finished by noon, but the group from yesterday had to wait until after 1:30 to get the all clear. 

 

So I'm out of my rhythm here and have to back track on what we did yesterday!  Its like work, it moves so quick I can't clearly remember what we did yesterday!  We were able to sleep in yesterday since we didn't have any morning trips.  We walked around the island here to visit a number of shops selling baby things and gifts to take home.  Then we had to hustle back to the hotel for the all important red couch photos!

 

Here at the White Swan Hotel they have an area off the lobby for sitting and meeting and they have big red couches that over look a waterfall and koi pond.  For years all the families staying here gather at some point to take photos here with the new children dressed in traditional Chinese clothing.  We take photos of just the kids then the individual families and then the whole group.  A little hectic with 7 kids under the age of three who have been with their new family for a week!  Add 10 cameras flashing all over and parents fussing over hair and meltdowns are bound to happen!  Cheerios and crackers make a good quick treat to quiet kids for a second long enough to get a picture hopefully with their mouth closed! You will see in the photos we found a cute little size 1 outfit for Lainey and tried to keep a barrette in her hair, you should have been watching the conversation with me at the front desk asking for tape to try to get the darn thing to stay in her hair!  I asked for some tape, the lady kept handing me a stapler!  I think I took 170 pictures in about 20 minutes so I won't subject you to all of them, I took many for other families to send them later.  Who needs the posed ones, the crawling on the floor is so much more fun!  Laine did pretty well. We were able to get a couple smiles of her alone.  In the group settings she was too preoccupied with everything around her.  A couple of the older girls wanted to take pictures holding her and it worked a minute but then the strange hands holding her got old and she wanted us! 

 

*****BREAKING NEWS*******We just got the call our visa for Laine was approved with no questions!  And they changed our schedule slightly, we were supposed to take the oath tomorrow, but the consulate decided to move it up one day and we go there in a couple hours to complete that step.  Then the only remaining item will be to wait for the physical visa to be put in Laine's passport.

 

So now we bring you back to originally scheduled blogging!  After the photos we had a dinner cruise on the Pearl River.  This was our second dinner cruise on a boat, the first was in Maui and we had the same result, we went away hungry! They announced the buffet was open in Chinese, so we missed the starting whistle and ended up at the end of the line.  Plus it was mostly Cantonese food which was another new taste.  We had some good things, not sure what they were, but they were good just too small of portions.  They had really  tasty looking deserts of tarts and finger cakes, but were gone before I got to that side of the table!  Ended up with apple slices.  The boat cruised on the river for about 90 minutes.  A woman stood most of the ride in the front pointing out the landmarks as we went.  She spoke very briefly in english and then in Chinese for the rest of the trip so can't tell you much of what we saw!  But the city here is lit up very well.  Almost every building is outlined in bright lights or maybe the entire side of the building is a flashing ad.  Many people were saying its like Times Square and Las Vegas on steroids.  It is very neat to look at.  Again I took way to many photos!

 

Laine is still opening up more.  She laid on her stomach on Christina and played for a good 20 minutes too.  Last week she wouldn't or couldn't lay on her stomach for more than a few seconds.  She will fall asleep in our arms more easily too.  She makes quite a lot of buzzing and blowing noises and seems to be really fascinated by someone whistling.  Well you are pretty up to date now.  I'll add some photos here before we run to lunch.