Our family was in the newspaper today!

 

 (all of these pictures were taken by Carrie Snyder from The Fargo Forum)

Here is a link to the article:  http://www.inforum.com/content/instant-love-months-preparation-culminate-adoption-fargo-family-0

Ruby's first 4th of July {2014}

We had such a fun 4th of July!  It was Ruby's first of course(as an American citizen) and naturally she had no idea what all the hoop-la was about but she was a good sport and seemed to have a really fun day with us.  She made it through our little party in the evening but then headed to bed so she missed the fireworks(and then, so did I!).

"Are you done with this photo shoot yet mama??" :)

 The kids walked around the block and delivered some patriotic treats to their buddies in the morning.

 Then we tested out the new patio set and ate our traditional red, white and blue pancake breakfast outside.  It was a beautiful day out!

 Poor peanut can't eat pancakes yet but hopefully by next year she'll have a big plate of her own in front of her!  She ate her usual bowl of oatmeal with mashed up bananas instead. :)

After John and the kids got home from watching the fireworks in Moorhead, the kids did some sparklers- we let them stay up late and do this every year.  It's always something they look forward to.

Happy 4th of July!!!

last day, Ruby's VISA and a trip to Walmart {Guangzhou, China}

Today was our last full day in Guangzhou.  I was so bummed.  We were excited to go on to Hong Kong and Disney of course but this was the last leg of the trip where it would really feel like we were in China- since we were staying at a Disney resort.  I had grown to love this country and now I felt like it was going by way too fast.  I seriously do not want to go home!  I especially felt like our time here in Guangzhou was way too short.  I actually just kinda wish we could move into The Garden!  Wouldn't that be nice?  Ruby's VISA would(hopefully) be ready for Elvin to pick up today and that was all that was on our list of things to do:  meet him at a certain time in the hotel lobby and get it.

We wanted to walk around some more in the city and look for some small, local shops that weren't touristy.  We also needed to go to Walmart and stock up on some more of Ruby's formula and baby food.  First we enjoyed another fabulous breakfast and fed the fish afterwards.  It is sweltering to eat outside like this but who can resist the beauty of the courtyard while inhaling our favorite spicy, boiling hot noodle soup for breakfast?  Apparently we cannot.

Ruby stuck with her congee, eggs, fruit and sweet breads while the big kids devoured plates of dumplings, steamed buns, fruit, and anything else that struck their fancy that morning.  We are living it up while we can!  Breakfast is going to seem so horrible when we get back home. :(

 

 Don't their facial expressions look the same!?

First stop of the day: Walmart!  Some things look the same as a US Walmart but mostly it does not.  I took a bunch of pictures to share with you what I mean...

Yes, those are chicken feet.

Ruby fell dead asleep out of nowhere which she always does.  No set naptime since we are all off schedule and spend most of our days on the go.  She does great napping where ever we are and we get extra snuggle time with her that way too. :)

sweet girl

I thought this was interesting... hunks of meat just laying out and then you can bag your own! ha!

Back at the hotel later we met up with Elvin, received Ruby's VISA(yay!) and took some pictures with him.  We will never forget our guides on this trip, I'm already hoping to come back soon to Elvin again!  He has taken excellent care of us and he has the best sense of humor.  It was easy to see right away why he is a favorite among all the families with our agency.

Elvin offered to set up a night cruise for us this evening but we decided to pass.  We have heard mixed reviews about it and we also needed to get some packing finished and get some good rest for our journey to Hong Kong tomorrow.

Ruby's Medical and exploring The Garden {Guangzhou, Guangdong}

 This morning was baby girl's medical appointment.  Every adopted child has to have one in Guangzhou.  Ruby slept in and we didn't have the heart to wake her after her rough evening on the plane last night, so we called Elvin our guide and asked if it was ok to go a bit later.  Normally we would never have done that but when we left him the night before he have us the impression that we didn't really have a set appointment time.  So, we thought it couldn't hurt to ask.  He was totally fine with pushing the departure time back an hour!  We decided that I would stay back with the big kids and John would take CanCan.  We are trying to evenly distribute the time spent with each parent(for bonding purposes) and she is with me a bit more- plus takes the bottle better from me, so we thought this would be a good time for him to be with her- especially if she was scared and needed comforting... good bonding.

We were instructed before we left on the trip that this is not the time where you want to bring anything up and have a big chit-chat about any concerns.  The biggest fear that comes out of this appointment is that the doctors will be alerted to something that will in the end prevent you from leaving the country on time.  Ruby has had a cough and runny nose since we got her which of course they noticed but John didn't make a big deal about it.  She checked out totally fine but did not like being weighed as you can see.  7.4 kg... that is about 16 lbs... and that is after eating like crazy for the last week!  What a tiny peanut.

 All done and ready to go!  John said Elvin was so awesome... that he kept getting him in before other people and you could tell he had some connections and pull there.  We love him already!

 Super blurry but John tried to snap a photo of the vending machine full of wine on his way out.  He asked Elvin why on earth that was there and Elvin jokingly responded it was for the parents that just find out their child tested positive for TB and would have to stay in GZ for 6-8 weeks.  Oh boy!

 Meanwhile back at the hotel, the kids and I had discovered an amazing courtyard with a waterfall, ponds, koi fish, and gardens.  We were so excited to show John and Ruby when they returned!

 Happy to be back with the rest of the family!!

 Ruby loved the fishies and kept reaching for them.

 Look at this waterfall!  Isn't this cool to have right in the middle of your hotel?  I love The Garden!!

 Below is the view from our hotel room.  I kept wondering what was going on on the roofs of those buildings!  It is so muggy here that things look almost mossy.

 Ruby's preferred way of sitting in her stroller.  I'm sure it has a lot to do with her having very little core muscle strength... funny story:  a woman came up to John pushing Ruby and leaned over talking in Chinese and took Ruby's legs and put them in leg holes of the stroller.  I wonder if she thought we didn't know how a baby went into a stroller??  The kids were fit to be tied about it but we just laughed because as soon as the lady walked away Ruby pulled her legs out and plopped them on top of the bar again- ha!  She must like how it feels.  She was probably thinking: what was that lady's problem?? :)

It was time to get out of the hotel and explore Guangzhou!  Since we got in late the night before, we hadn't seen a thing.  We are so excited to be in our 3rd city of the trip and look forward to all there is to experience and discover here.  Nobody is sick, nobody is homesick, and Ruby is doing great!