Out like a light! I forgot to tuck in my chins.

The grandmas and kids.

Tradition continues

Locks are put here by visitors for good luck

Lauren on the wall, we rested here while others went up higher.

Look close, Sue and Lia sitting down on the steps

The girls and I, Go Leafs Go!

The wall in all its glory!

Us enjoying the birthday cake!

My birthday cake! It says happy birthday in chinese we think. It may say here is your cake you idiot but we are not sure. Margrace?


Hi, what a way to spend your birthday, on the great wall! We set out today and stopped at the jade factory. Deb, I was able to bargin here this time. We bought a family hapines ball. It is 4 round balls one inside the other but carved out of a single section of jade. Really cool. We also purchased a jade rooster for Lauren and Monkey for Lia as this was the symbol for the year they were born. Apparebtly number 1 quality the guy said over and over again. We then arrived at the great wall. This part of the wall is very tourist centred but it gives you the idea on the magnitude of this structure. One has to see it in person to fully appreciate the beauty and sense of history in the story it tells. It was very bust as October 1st is a week longholiday in China commemorating the founding of the Peoples Republic of China. The only other major holiday is Chinese New Year. The last time we were here they wasn't too much action but today it was very busy.

I found a chairman mao watch but she wanted 50 yuan for it! I said 30 for 2 and she just turned away disgusted. I thought for sure she would stop me as I walked away but she didn't. I guess I pissed her off. I will get one at the Silk Market tomorow and one for Weeden too I guess.

Lia and Sue walked up to the 2nd guard tower. No small feat as the steps are very uneven and steep to say the least. I hung out at the 1st tower and siad about a thousand knee hows to the people who starred at me. Then a spanish crew of new parents arrived and took the heat for awhile. My mom went up to the 4th tower and apparently in an act of vandalism wrote her name on the wall with some guys pens who was dong the same thing. She has clearly given up on adhereing to any sort of law and order mentality while over here adding vandalism to her growing list of crimes!

Tomorow is a free day so we will head out to the silk market. Apparently it has the same stuff the pearl market has and is a half hour walk so thats what we are doing. I have a list of what people are asking us to get and time and load restrictions willing will get what we can. I need 2 Chairman Mao watches, oakley's, rolex, jacket, Olympic stuff of all kinds and the list goes on.

Lauren is a typical 2 year old with us now. She is into everything. All our stuff is up on anything over 3 feet high now out of reach. She is very outgoing and energetic. She has started to attach to us very nicley but will still cry when I walk away which makes the buffet hard to get to. I was able to examine her mouth more a few days ago and her pallet doesn't look bad. There is a section that is a bit out but once we are home Dr G will work his magic and set us up at Sick Kids for some appointments. Her communication is coming along quite well too. She know what she wants and points it out to us. She understands alot of what we say and ask her to do. I think there was a fair bit of english spoken at hope haven while she was there. Today she sang what sounds like happy birthday when we sang it and old mac donald as well. She had the e i e i O down pat!

Lia is the best big sister. When Lauren crys Lia gives her her very special puppy that Aunt Cheryl gave her to help calm her down. This is a big step for Lia. She even shared her food with her!

All in all things are going well. The days are too busy sometimes but we get done what we need to and then its Bath and bed for us all. Keep the comments coming, we love to read them.

Ken Sue Lia and Lauren.

This is 1300 yrs old!

Guard tower on Xi'an wall

Awesome!

The man himself!

much is under renovation for the olympics

walking in the forbidden city

ken's awesome crib at 12:30am

Hi from Beijing!

Well we completed the tour of the goose pagoda and Xi'an wall today and then finished it all off getting Lauren's passport at 5:30. It rained the whole time so it made the touring that much more difficult but it was all very interesting to see. We had lunch at this restuarant our guide goes to and it was fantastic food. We ate like champs and left way too much we couldn't finish. When the bill came they said ir was 160 RMB. So we were like well thats ok only abot 16 US per person. We started to put the money together and our guide stopped us and said no its 160 RMB for the whole thing! Way too cheap here to eat! So we finished and drove the 1 hour to the Xi'an airport. We had no issues checking in at all and it went smooth. area. The flight was a bit rough as Laurn did not sleep and was quite cranky so that made me a bit cranky to the French tourists in front of us but all went OK. We got to the hotel at 12:00am and checked in and went to bed. They did not give us a crib so we pushed 2 arm chairs together and made a nice little crib for Lauren. We have one now so its all good.

We got up this am and set out for tianamam square and the forbidden city. The square was much more crowded this time then last and I couldn't find anyone selling Chairman Mao watches yet so I will have to search a bit for them. October 1st is a week long holiday here so everyone is out touring. It celebrates thier independance. The kids were great but tired so Lauren is sleeping now and Lia is playing in the living room. The hotel is awesome! Big rooms and very nice.

We are going to get some food now and clean up a bit before venturing out again. The air here is much better then 2.5 yrs ago. It doesnt seem any different then Toronto now. I will put some pics up and sign off. Thanks!

Hi,

Ok so today was a free day. after the grandmas relocated food from the buffet to our room we left for a walk around town. They have been relocating this food everyday now so we have some in the rooms at night. We won't call it stealing as it is paid for already. They have become quite the cleptos' now. They go down with thier purses empty but come back with a dozen hard boiled eggs, 4 yogurts, a bunch of suger gummy worms for Lia and whatever else they can fit onto thier bags.

So after the heist we walked to the 3500 yr old wall that surrounds the inner city. It is 38 km around with a moat around it. Its all still here with 4 gates north, east, west and south as exits or entrances. Traffic gets nuts at these gates. The wall is about 40 feet thick at the base with a park around the whole wall. We saw all sorts of people using it today for exercise etc. There was this old lady, say 80 or so doing deep knee bends and touching her toes. I watched her do this until I was tired so we left her there. She was amazing! A bunch of the people would look at us until I said something to them. Don't worry I was polite. I said hello of (knee how) and they would smile and keep watching.

We feel very safe here alone just walking around as the people are very nice and courtious. The air here however is pretty thick. After being outside you need to shower as it kind of sticks to you. You just feel dirty. I am amazed at the amount of trees and greenery as every road, highway and sidewalk has trees along the side every 20 feet. I was told this was to help with the pollution and they have planted 7 million trees in the last 3 yrs. The entire place is clean with no garbage or debris along the roads etc. There are crews that do nothing but sweep all day.

I saw a sledge hammer crew yesterday. There were these 5 guy just swinging sledge hammers all day to take down these buildings. At night they would clean thier hammers while waiting for the bus to go home. Unlimited human resources!

Tomorow we go to the wall tour and the goose pagoda and then its off to Beijing. Laren is still doing very well. She eats a tonne and has a quick smile. I have a cough now so she imitates me all the time and coughs after I do. She actually understand what we are saying. I will say get me the remote and she walks over and grabs it and brings it back to me. I have tried to teach that to Sue for years with no luck. She understands when we tell her its time to eat or sleep. She says some things in Mandarin back to us which I am sure is some type of flippng us off but I don't understand it so its OK! She is still a bit shy with stanges but if I am there or Sue she is fine. She has taken to Sue now as ell but still wants me close by which is cool for me and works out well for the plane ride tommorow night.

The flight here was Ok but the seats are somehting else. There is 2 feet from the back of the head rest infront of you to the front of you head rest. The width is about 18 inches. I heard al the jokes already so don't bother! Well, I will find some pictures to attach and sign off for now. Thanks for dropping by and I will post again LIVE From Beijing its Saturday Night!

PS, The pic of napolean is acually embroidery, it looks like a photograph but is made of threads!
The way in pic is at the terra cotta warriors, right to the point I guess. The kids play room in the orphanage is another pic and the broom should be obvious I guess.

More pictures!

Visit to the Orphanage

Hi everyone! I thought I would take my turn and provide my first official update. Ken has been doing a spectacular job at keeping everyone up to date but I kindly requested a turn.

Where do I begin??? Our lives have taken a miraculous turn and things couldn't be better. Yan Yan (Lauren) is absolutely amazing. She is sleeping, eating and loving Ken like she has known him her whole life. Someone was really smiling on us as she is quite taken with her daddy. I still get my kisses and a whole lot of smiles but daddy is clearly the first choice. This works out brilliantly as I can then tend to Miss Lia's needs while he takes care of Miss Lauren. (Deb - your words of wisdom were once again so true! Thank you.)

Today we went to Lauren's orphanage. We were quite nervous about the potential affects this may have on Yan as she was so terribly distraught when we were first presented her. Our fear was if she saw all of her nannies again, it would be a set back. I am happy to report that was not the case. She was so clearly well loved and taken care of - I am so happy we got to see her home. When we first entered the building the nannies were so excited to see her again. They smothered her with kisses and passed her around like a rag doll. She loved every minute of it. Then they asked her who her mama and baba were - she pointed to us and she readily went back to Ken's open arms. It could not have gone better had we dared to play it out that way in our minds. Ken took lots of pictures of the other children in the toddler room and he plans to post them on-line for the other waiting families from our orphanage to see some of their children. (Again, I think of our dear friends Deb and Phil who we travelled with the first time. They assured us things would go this well. Our negative natures made us assume the worst would happen and pray for the best. Wish you were both here!)

On the sleep front, Lia slept almost all night last night. Yeah! We were zonked at 7:00 pm so we all went to bed. I am proud to report Lia slept until 5:30 am! 5:30 I can deal with. 2 am - not so much.

After the orphanage we stopped at a silk factory. The moms went all crazy buying out the place and Ken stocked up on ties. We purchased a silk duvet cover for Miss Lauren.. We bought one for Lia the last time and thought it was a nice keep sake for them some day. (No actual silk duvets this time!!! We do learn from past mistakes...)

Anyway, I should wrap this up. We are just about to have some lunch and then see if we can take the girls swimming. Things are going far better than I ever expected and while I miss the routines of home, we are all having an amazing time on our grand adventue. The grandmas have been a godsend and we are forever grateful for their help.

Tomorrow is a free day so who knows what will happen but I am sure Ken will continue with the daily updates. Again - love to all at home. I can't wait for you all to meet our amazing new daughter.

Susan

Ok so I'm back. The warriors were awesome! What a site. We spent a few hours there and saw the 3 pits. Much of the site is yet to be excavated. If you get the chance to see it I highly recommend it. Too much to say about it for a blog. The one picture is of Lauren and her nanny at the orphanage. Sue's comments say it all. The other picture is of us watching Dora. Thanks

Ken

Well what a difference a day makes. She is very outgoing with s now. I get all the hugs and kisses I want. She went to bed no problem last night and woke up only once to make sure I was still there. I sang her the ni wawa ni wawa song and zia nali song and she as out like a light. The Mandarin lessons are paying off. Thanks to Jieyu! Lauren is eating like a champ. I have the packing thing figured out. I just make her say awe! and she opens her mouth to get more, if there is still food inside I say no, no and he chews and swallows it to get more. She is still wary of strangers when they get on the elevator with us but is allot better. I guess we were strangers 24 hrs ago too. Mom and I and the girls went on a bit of an adventure. We walked around the block, 1.5 hour walk through the street of Xi'an. The people starred and we said knee how (phonetic) and they smiled and said hello! Xi'an has 7 million people and we just walked up and down the street and a few alleys looking at all the food and things people were trying to sell. Never once felt unsafe unless it was crossing the street, no rules here! We were rushed off the sidewalk by a car driving on it so that was nuts! Lia and Lauren play well together and we got a good nights sleep last night. Lauren is stil asleep ow 5:50am and we head out to see the terra cotta warriors today, something I have always anted to see. It must be fate! The bath went very well. Lauren washes herself hair and everything. She really seems to understand English as the orphanage did have some british missionaries working there. It was a christian based faith too which was surprising. We got a book from them with many pictures of Lauren's 2 yrs there like 1st haircut , birthday etc. That is priceless. We are doing well and thanks for all the comments. they sure help s not feel home sick. Pics of the warriors tomorrow!

WOW! What a day! We arrived at the civil affairs office a bit early and had to wait for the girls to arrive. Phil, I think I still owe you 200 RMB from last time I was in a place like this. I'll pay you on the homeland tour! I was as nervous as ever and Sue was anxious as well. We knew Lauren would be scared as we were told she was afraid of strangers so we expected the worst. When they brought her is she immediately started to cry which is normal but once the nanny tried to pass her over she was beside herself. I think she knew what was going on! She was so terrified and I was immensely sad for her and the guilt I felt at causing this was horrible. The look on my face in the picture above doesn't come close to the feeling of sadness and guilt! She has a very loud cry. She would shake and wail. The nanny would say to her waive to you mama and baba and she would but it was a furious waive of good bye I think. After a half hour of this the director said to the nannies to had the girls over and they did and left the building. This caused more commotion as you would guess. At one point Lauren was standing on the floor and she realized she was able to move. The fight or flight instinct kicked in and she ran for the door. These kids are amazing! Sue picked her up at the door and she actually began to calm. Sue was fantastic! Lauren began to soothe and melted into Sue's arms. This was way different then with Lia. There were only 2 girls and they were both a year older and understood what was happening. Lia was awesome! She shared her favorite toy with Lauren and that helped a great deal. She even helped change her and put her to bed. We got back to the hotel and Lauren was a champ! She only whimpered a bit when Sue would change positions or move. She is starting to warm up to me more and more. I can get a smile from her and even feed her but no kisses yet. I guess she is like every other girl I ever met! The kisses are saved for her mommy I guess as Sue gets them on demand. Last night she slept the entire night mostly but Lia was up at 2:00am so I was as well. This morning Lauren was awesome. No tears! She eats like a champ but is packing too. She will take food but save it in her mouth. This is apparently the norm as they feel they better take while they can get it and save some for later as they my not know when the next meal comes. It is quite sad but understandable too. I am rambling a bit and I am sure Sue will have more thoughts soon. I could not post pictures yesterday for some reason but today it is all good. What a day! More to come but I want to get this off before they close it down again!