This will be my last post as tomorrow morning Don flies home with the computer. We are following the next day. Hooray!! I would love to return to China some day, but being here with a new baby has made it difficult to see much. This whole thing is so surreal. Adoption is a labor of it's own kind. Whether a baby passes through your body or through customs they both have their own equally difficult transitions. And, like labor, I imagine someday I will forget the hard part and just remember what a beautiful time it was. The exhaustion and anxiety of last week has already faded a bit. All I can tell you is it is worth every second. We have our baby and our family feels complete.

Tonight we are going on a dinner cruise of the Pearl River and tomorrow is our farewell dinner.
Friday we board China Southern Airlines and we will arrive at LAX 5:50 p.m. I can't wait for you all to meet Addie and more importantly I can't wait to have a diet coke in a cup with ice.

Love,
DeAnne (Go Gators!)

It is cold and windy today. We are not getting out to see much in China. I suppose we will have to come back some day with Addie and show her where she is from. I don't really want to visit Changsha again so I may tell Addie she is from Beijing. Don thinks we should tell her she is from San Francisco.

She is so wonderful. She is so easy. She looks for me and reaches for me when we are out in public. I can't believe we have only had her for a week.

Everything people say about USAA is true. They are fabulous. They take care of everything and then some.

Yesterday we went for Addie's medical check up. She weighs 18 pounds. They took off her diaper and I think they were checking to make sure she was a girl. She needed changing anyway. I miss everyone and I want a salad.

DeAnne

We are back in Guangzhou!! Today we went to the Six Banyan Tree Temple and the babies were blessed by a Buddhist monk. We are doing well. Enjoy the pictures.
DeAnne (mother of three)

Addie is a truley amazing little person. She has obviously been very well taken care of. She is secure and happy and will let us comfort and love her. We are so blessed and so lucky. She sucks her thumb so she can comfort herself and will sit and play with toys. She notices everything and turns her head when she hears a noise to see whats going on. She has deep inquisitive eyes. I realize I keep ending sentances with a preposition, but at least I'm upright and typing.
Yesterday we visited the Hunan Embroidery Museum. We are talking real live embroidery, not the chain stitch and poppy stitch I learned in Brownies. The work was amazing. The stitches so fine and so delicate it looks like a painting. My favorite was a dancer (natch) in a Red Army costume doing a saute arabesque. It was so strong and beautiful. The lines of his body were perfect.

Want to know what is amazing? We traveled 15 hours by plane, another hour by plane and Addie traveled 8 hours on a bus so we could meet each other. We were about as far away as we could be, but thanks to God, the People's Republic of China and US Asian Affairs we have found each other and we are a family. Life is good.

Well, there is no need to include Changsha on your must see list. Although the food is great and the hotel is nice, the view out our window is one flying car short of Blade Runner. The best reason to come here, the place where Chairman Mao was educated, is to get a baby.

Addie is remarkable. She has come so far in 48 hours. I have been her wire monkey since Gotcha, but today she decided Don was o.k. She even was trying to make him laugh. Good idea.

While Addie and Daddy were bonding I went to get a foot massage for $6.00 American. A diet coke cost $5.00 and a sixty minute massage is $6.00. Labor is cheap. The foot massage room has a few chairs in it facing a T.V. that at the time I was there was tuned to HBO and was airing some movie about the crucifixion of Christ. Just as I was starting to relax I heard, "Call for the release of Barabus!" Not real conducive to relaxation. Then as I was getting a great foot massage I had to listen to screaming, moaning and the pounding of nails through flesh. (Yes, thankfully it was still the Jesus movie.) I didn't even look up once to see the carnage. They tried, but they could not make me watch it. Just like they could not make me watch Red Asphalt in traffic school. After Jesus died the sound track was actually quite beautiful as the three Marys did their stuff. Doesn't the Three Marys sounds like the name of a drag show? Anyway, I digress. The Chinese give great massages, but do not seem to understand the "spa experience." Forgive them father, they know not what they do.

DeAnne
P.S. Andrew was accepted to Hofstra and offered a scholarship. Congratulations first born!!!!

I'm going to try to post a photo. I can't see the blog so let me know if you can. I had this thought that while I was in China I would send back witty and meaningful reflections of our journeys. Well, that's not looking so likely. We are still in Changsha and today we visited the oldest University in the world. Maybe I can get Andrew in there. DeAnne

typing one handed. we are here and we have her. actually, she has us. she is brilliant and beautiful and sad. we are working on the sad part and she is bonding quickly. we signed all the paperwork today and she is officially ours. we are unable to post photos yet, but we will soon. andrew, i miss you and i love you. i really wish you were with us. love to all.

deAnne