It was quite a wild ride in China. Kayleigh/Lu Fang was very unresponsive
the first two days. We thought she was autistic. Night two
was the worst night of my life. Finally, I started humming "I cast
all my cares upon you"--decided I couldn't deal with it by myself, I guess.
The next day, she started to respond and eat. Don't have any pictures
of those first days. These were taken about a week later, at the
swearing-in ceremony.
(click on the picture to go to the next)
By this time, she was becoming a lot more wriggly. Little did I know! I focused a lot more on the video, so I don't have a lot of pictures of the trip itself. We were in Chang Sha for about a week. While there, we drove out to Zhou Zho and saw the orphanage Lu Fang came from, took in a few sights, filled out paperwork, and tried to recover from jet lag. Chang Sha is the capital of Hunan province, and very modern, but it felt very Chinese.
A week later, we flew to Guang Zho (used to be called Canton). There, we stayed on an island (separated by a channel and some bridges from the rest of the city) that used to be the British Enclave in the 19th century. This city was also very modern, but felt a lot more Western. We spent about a week in Guang Zho, getting medical exams, paperwork ready, visas, and through U.S. customs. It was about Day 4 in Guang Zho that I finally found the camera.
After being sworn in, we took some group photos, and some pictures of
The Baby Couch. Here's the whole crowd:
From the top left by family cluster (appologies for misspellings),
there's Lu and Lil, their daughter Liandra (who was a real trouper), and
baby Sho Shana. Next is Ron and Janet and baby Anna MeiLin.
Christie and Chris brought Chris's mother along to help. Their small
one is Haylee. Gary and Nancy and Grace are next. Finally there's
Francine and I and Kayleigh.
It was a great crowd to be with. I don't know how we would have made it without borrowing stuff from Ron and Janet (we still owe you guys an outfit), advice from Chris's Mom (who has decades of experience as a nurse and educator of small children), energy from Liandra, and sanity from Gary and Nancy. With the addition of Matthew (our guide from the adoption agency), Dr. Susan (our Chinese doctor), and Julie and Daniel (our native guides in Chang Sha and Guang Zho respectively), we made a great team!
You may have noticed we're all standing in front of a giant jade boat.
I thought I'd get a picture of the thing without all the people.
Cool beans, eh? (as my sister would say)
and a bottle 
.
with exhaustion. Fortunately, the Granddads banded together and assembled
a crib, a stroller, and a bunch of other baby furniture! Meanwhile,
the Grandmom's had the place looking spic 'n span. They threw us
a baby shower the Sunday we returned. Unfortunately, we were all
a bit zombied out. Still, everyone (except Maria) got to see the
new addition, and make sure the proper number of limbs were attached.
Folks
keep asking us how the other animals get along with Kayleigh. Part
of that, I think is because of Francine's fame as a collector of strange
and exotic critters. Surprising as it may be, we're down to just
one dog and three cats! Missy keeps wanting Kayleigh to play ball
with her. Two of the cats ignore her. The last, Aldonza, actually
seems to like Kayleigh. Either that, or she's got a thing for having
her tail pulled and her collar yanked. I was pleasently surprised
how gentle all the animals have been!
We're
cutting teeth. This occasionally makes us fussy, and always makes
us drooly. Unlike most kids, we've only recently discovered our mouth.
Maybe it's because Daddy's an example of what can happen if that goes too
far! Come on--give us a kiss Sweet'art!
Even after we got back from China, and we got sitting up figured out, we
didn't seem to have much of an idea of what to do with our arms.
Just recently, though, Kayleigh's discovered that they can be used to grab
things, reach for things, and get Mommy and Daddy to pick us up!
Up
until the day we took these pictures, Kayleigh didn't much like hats.
She seems to be fairly reconciled to this one though!
Here we go--One more group of photos. Just keep clicking 'til
you get to the end!
The rest of these pictures are more pics of her sitting with Daddy and Missy, playing with Daddy's pendant. She's a cutie! Like all of the small pics above, clicking on the picture will give you the full size version!
That should do ya for now. I'll post again, soon. Really.