Our Red Thread Story

After "giving" ourselves this 10 minute DVD for Christmas, we've finally pulled all our pictures and video from China together with some music we liked and had "Red Thread Stories" combine all of it into a truly wonderful video that really tells Abby's story. It may have been expensive, but worth every penny! Abby already requests "The Abby Show" many times a day and narrates along with it. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

DAY 13 - December 20, 2006

We now only have one full day left and we're headed home! And just in case we have no time to update tomorrow - you know, with packing our lives up and preparing to take our new daughter on a flight 1/2 way around the earth and all - our flight is scheduled to arrive in Colorado Springs at 5:13pm Friday (the 22nd). Here's hoping the snow storm you guys just got will be history by Friday and another one will wait until Christmas Eve! We'd love for people to come meet us at the airport but we must warn you, Abby may not be a social butterfly and may be quite overwhelmed with it all. We don't think it will seriously damage her or anything but she may not be up for being held by everyone there. So, it's your call and we'll see you when we see you! Today was the first morning we didn't need to be anywhere and that was SO nice. Abby was still up and down for about the last 3 hours of sleep, but we could all sleep in until she was REALLY ready to be up. We had our first non-traumatic bath today and even enjoyed it so much she wanted to get back in after we got out. We got a call at noon telling us all of our paper work had been accepted by the US Consulate and we're all clear to take our oath tomorrow and to receive Abby's visa to travel to America as a US citizen!! Later we had a trip to the Pearl Market and we bought 2 beautiful strands of pearls of excellent quality that we watched them hand string and knot while we waited; one for Sara and one for Abby that we will give to her for her wedding day. The clasp on both read in Chinese Long Life and Good Fortune. We got back and finished up our shopping for gifts and stuff for Abby (how many pairs of Squeaky Shoes does a girl need?!), not to mention an extra suitcase for all of this loot, and headed back to the Thai restaurant with the Powells for dinner. It is probably the best dinner we've had on the entire trip and the best red curry we've ever eaten. The girls dinned on plain steamed rice noodles, mandarin oranges and Abby actually liked the Pad Thai we had. David is afraid we may have a vegetarian on our hands! After dinner we detoured to pick up our laundry (incredibly cheep here!) and then back to the hotel for chill time. We have decided that Abby may be a bit of a homebody because as soon as we hit the room she completely relaxes, her silly personality comes out and she gets totally cranked up! David calls her the human paint shaker, always moving in every direction like crazy! But with a mom like Sara she won't stay a homebody for long! But for now, it's probably a good sign that she's becoming more comfortable with us. That's all for tonight and again, we just may not have time to update tomorrow as we prepare to come home. So we ask for your prayers and good wishes for safe and "happy" flights for all 3 of us and we can't wait to get home and see or talk to you all!

DAY 12 - December 19, 2006

We can't believe it's day 12 already and yet we are ready to head home today!!! Last night was another tough night for all of us. We are starting to wonder if Abby's foster mother/parents allowed her to sleep on top of them because when she wakes during the night she doesn't soothe herself back to sleep. Instead she cries and tries to move on top of one of us (usually Sara) to then go back to sleep. Of course, since we aren't used to it, after 45 minutes or so we need to move which wakes her up and begins the cycle all over again. This morning it went from 4:00am until about 6 and the alarm went off a 6:30. It started out a long day! Today included a tour of Guangzhou city. We went to 3 places this morning: The oldest Buddhist Temple in the city (over 1,000 years old), the Old Chen House (now a museum for local arts and crafts) and the Provincial Arts and Crafts shop (SHOPPING FOR THE GOOD STUFF!). The temple was bustling and very interesting to observe the local people. Sara took Abby into a ceremony to bless all of the babies, which was very moving. We don't know if it was the spiritual nature of the ceremony but all of the babies were quite peaceful during the 5-10 minute ceremony and Abby was very interested in the monk who preformed the ceremony that blessed the babies with health, wealth, long life, good fortune and a peaceful heart. Then to the Chen House that was the temple and academy for anyone bearing the name of Chen (the 2nd most popular name in China). It now displays the arts and crafts associated with Guangzhou: Ivory carvings, Jade Carvings, Embroidery, and Porcelain. We were most impressed by the carvings - the intricacy and detail was truly mind blowing. Some of the ivory carvings went so far as to carve lace patterns in the dresses of figures only about 4 inches tall - our photos could never do it justice. The building alone had wood carvings throughout. Lastly it was to the Arts and Crafts shop where Sara finally bought the jade pendant she's been wanting (and one for Abby for a later birthday). We also picked up some gifts of silk items, family chops (signature blocks with ink), and a few hand-tied knots (good luck and long life bringers). In the front of the store was some Snake Schnapps - an alcoholic beverage that had been made with a real snake in it. The bottle had a yellowish liquid that still included that once live snake. So who do you think took a sample of the Snake Schnapps?! Yep, it was David...no one else is that CRAZY! The group has a good laugh (or gag) over what David will try every day. After we got back we had our first lunch at McDonald's and it is exactly the same as it is in the states. Mind you, we won't eat it back home, but here it tastes like a little bit of heaven. Tonight we tried to finish up our shopping as we're running out of time. At dinner we met a family from the same small town that some of Sara's relatives live in, Forest City North Carolina. The Jones family (picture below), who just adopted Chloe (who has the same birthday as Abby!), even lived next door to one of Sara's cousins and goes to church with the other! It just goes to show what a small world it is when you can find this connection halfway around the world. *Note to the Jones family if they read this -- In our infinite organization we now cannot find your info you gave us. Please e-mail us your info again as soon as you get a chance. Sorry for the inconvenience, and it was really great meeting you tonight.

DAY 11 - December 18, 2006

We had Abby's official medical exam today...what fun that was! Right after breakfast we headed to the clinic that specifically handles all of the adoption "physicals" that are required of the babies before they are allowed to exit the country. It was not much of a true physical just more like an are you breathing and are you running a fever type tests, both of which Abby passed. She did great until the last part of the exam where she was looked over physically without her clothes. She was not cool with that. After the exam we head back to the room for NAP TIME FOR ALL OF US! David is feeling kind of crummy - enough so to start on the precautionary antibiotics we brought for us and Sara isn't really sleeping all that well due to being kicked and slapped and punched all night by a flailing, whimpering baby (yes, literally all night). We all slept a good 2 hours and then it was out for more shopping. We found some great traditional Chinese silk shirts and a dress for Abby for our photos later in the day. But Abby was grumpy all day, so we cut it short and just went back to our room for some "down time" before the famous red couch photos. For those of you who don't know, CCAI has taken photos of EVERY group they have sent to China on this red couch and today was our day. Many of the girls were crabby and by the end when we tried to get all 9 of the babies on the couch together for 1 photo, many of them were in the melt-down phase. But a couple of our family photos came out pretty well (even though we had horrible lighting due to the bright afternoon sun coming through the wall of windows where we were. Another family actually got the best photo of us and we'll try to get our hands on it soon or as soon as we get home. Then we had a group dinner at a Thai restaurant that was very good, even if the service was a bit off (they brought David a second dinner after we were all done eating claiming her ordered it when she brought us the bill...wait a second! That does sound kind of like David!). Abby was so tired she actually fell asleep at her highchair. Seizing the opportunity David carried her back to the hotel where we walked around looking at the beautiful Christmas decor, the amazing indoor waterfall, the night skyline, etc.... Abby woke up as we were walking and allowed David to continue to hold her for the rest of the walk! Little steps for big results, we say. Then it was back to the room for calming down time, which turned into Abby being goofy and getting too spun up, so when 9:30 hit and she was still going (imagine the energizer bunny) we had to just turn out the lights, make a bottle and let her be angry at us. After what felt like forever (15 minutes in reality) she succumbed and went down, but woke up just now from what we would discern as a bad dream. So now that she's back down and we're showered, we're headed to bed. We have a 1/2 day tour tomorrow so we need our rest...especially when you're carrying a 20lb kiddo the entire time! Sara's back is killing her!

Sorry about the difficulty updating the website. We hope we've fixed the problem.

Love to you all and we'll be home on FRIDAY!

DAY 10 - December 17, 2006

Our first full day in Guangzhou started with only a few hours sleep due to Abby's being awake half of the night and inconsolable the rest of it. But we are in love with the White Swan Hotel and their service and staff. Our bathroom is completely marble with antique fixtures. O.K. so it's not the safest for baby in socks but it's gorgeous. We have a girl on post in our hallway 24 hours a day to get us anything we might need or to simply push the elevator button for us. We have nightly turn-down service complete with beautiful chocolates, slippers laid out on a towel and bathrobes prepared for us in the bathroom. I gotta tell you, we ain't used to this but we LOVE IT. We started out our day at the famous breakfast buffet (included in our room price of $80.00 a night!) and it lives up to it's reputation. If you know David you know how that boy worked the buffet this morning - everything from French toast to pizza to so much fresh fruit you couldn't try each one if you were here more than a week! Then it was major paperwork time-visa application; we can't bring her into the United States without a visa. David took all of our paperwork up to our Rep's room and was gone for 2 1/2 hours! This gave Abby time to play and nap and even Sara got a few minutes of much-needed nap. Then it was out to shop for many of the items we've been planning on bringing home - granite etchings of Abby's photo, chops of family names, Chinese clothing tailored to actually fit us (Tim and Carol - Daisy is giving us a great deal thanks to you guys! We adore her.) and the infamous "Squeaky shoes!" These are shoes for the babies with squeakers in the heal so they squeak when they walk. Well, with Abby trekking around so easily and quickly now, these shoes help us know where she is at all times. She thinks it's pretty funny that she's the one squeaking. We wonder how Benny will react to these seeing as his favorite chew toys, a.k.a. his "babies" have squeakers ( a game we used to call "kill the baby." Guess we'll be changing that!). Then back to the hotel where we took Abby to the Swan Room - the playroom for kids sponsored by Mattel. She had a great time and was good with other kids but was also very tired. But when we left 45min.later we had to drag her out, yawning the whole time. Later we hooked up with Sean, Sally and Caroline and ate dinner at Lucy's for some "As Western as you're gonna get " food. We've now had a cheeseburger and fries and Fish and Chips and now we feel ready for our group dinner tomorrow night to eat Thai food. We then walked the streets - the weather is gorgeous here - to just be out of the hotel room. The girls were charming the shop girls who loved them so much they took them out of our arms and played with them. When we were done it was back to the White Swan where Daddy and Abby had some bonding time by just walking around the hotel together, looking at the amazing skyline (China knows how to do Christmas lights!) and the awesome waterfall in the lobby. We can't wait to take some shots of Abby with it as the backdrop. Daddy is doing all he can to get Abby to trust him but it's not happening quickly at all. So these bonding walks where she doesn't scream and cry are AWESOME steps in the right direction. Then it was back to the room where Sara traumatized her daughter once again by bathing her. Abby's foster family reported that she LOVES baths, but not from what we can tell, or at least not with us giving them to her. But afterwards, wrapped in a huge, soft White Swan towel she fell asleep in Sara's arms. Now we pray she sleeps through the night (at least for the most part) so we can get some much needed (and we feel, deserved) rest.

P.S. Sara has a new best friend, one of the shop girls at Jennifer's Place who looked at her and said "You have face of a little girl. You so young.

And sorry Emma for the lack of pictures "staring" David. We'll try to do better!

DAY 9 - December 16, 2006

Sorry for the late post, but we arrived in Guangzhou after a very long day traveling, although the flight was only 55minutes long. We discovered that Abby loved the flight and played and laughed the whole flight. We don't think she stopped moving for the entire 55 minutes! We're hoping this bodes well for all of the flights back home. We can't imagine we'll be that lucky. Between getting to /checked into the hotel and eating dinner, everyone, especially Abby, was totally fried! This made for one very, very, very long night with a little one that wouldn't go to sleep, then slept restlessly for awhile before waking up at 12:30 am ready to play (much to the frustration of the parents, who were not)!

DAY 8 - December 15, 2006

Our last full day in Nanchang! We have to cut this entry short as we are packing up what feels like our entire lives to get on our first plane ride as a family of 3 tomorrow. Thank goodness it's only about an hour and a half trip. Today our group went to the registration office to receive all of the babies' passports. It's so exciting having this small but mighty booklet in our hands. Now we can bring Abby into the United States! Then our guides took us to a porcelain factory to shop. Jiangxi is known for 3 things: rice, spicy girls and porcelain. All of the items were hand-painted and absolutely gorgeous and the prices for such artistry were fantastic. But we had to be reasonable with our purchases knowing it all had to come back home in our carry-on luggage. The tiny tea set we bought for Abby (at a much later age) is simply beautiful. Then it was "home" to begin packing and Sara had her final grades to record and e-mail back to UCCS so her students would actually receive a grade from her this semester. Now, not to brag but...we've packed so well that we still have extra room in our luggage even with 60 some odd diapers and new baby clothes added to the mix not to mention that David is a total packing pro . Our group all met for a last Nanchang dinner in the hotel and once again we sat at the "spicy" table. But tonight it was not nearly as spicy as we would have liked, but again, who is complaining about a 10 course meal with good friends and entertaining babies. And MAN, did our girl eat tonight! She was an eating machine, just like her daddy! Abby also decided to show off her mobility and was tearing around the lobby and restaurant like an old pro. Our group was very impressed and Abby seemed to love the attention (sound like anyone you might know?!). We have some great video of her and everyone's reaction to her. After dinner it was out for one last walk in Nanchang with our friends the Powells from California. Although the pollution is terrible here it was nice to get out of the room and walk in the brisk night air and just chat with friends (not to mention the adrenalin rush of dodging cars on the sidewalk...see photo below). On the street David bought a new carry-on for our Porcelain buys and even used his Chinese to make the deal. So were back in the room now, Abby is out for the night and we have our big bags pretty much packed to go. David arranged our porcelain in the new carry-on, surrounded by diapers to cushion the precious cargo.

Again, we want to thank everyone who is e-mailing us. Reading them brings tears to our eyes and touches our hearts...so keep them coming. Next time we write it will be from the famous White Swan in Guangzhou. Let the shopping begin!

P.S. To please Emma, David's biggest fan (well, 2nd to Sara) we're including a great photo of him with Abby at breakfast this morning.

DAY 7 - December 14, 2006

We have a whole new baby today! Last night was much better. Abby slept more soundly and so did we. We have this night-time bottle thing down now, to get it to her ASAP to keep the screaming to a minimum. This kiddo has lungs-just like her momma. We started her on some antibiotics yesterday and we think that made a huge difference. She's still feverish on and off all day, but her personality REALLY came out today! We have a walker on our hands and man, is she everywhere. After 3 days of not even wanting to stand on her own, today Sara encouraged her to walk a bit holding her hands and that was all she needed! It's not the most steady walk, but she can certainly move now. This is a heads up for Pa Pa and Nai Nai, that they will have to baby proof our place for us as much as possible before we get home. She's also quite the monkey, climbing all over Sara during our 2nd KFC dinner on the floor of our hotel room. This was all the while holding a half of a very sticky banana in her hand. After she was done Sara looked like she was covered in snot! She's also laughing a lot for us today, even allowing David to blow zurburts on her tummy. That's a HUGE trust step, so be impressed. But we find she seems to still be quite tentative with most men she encounters including David. Today our guides took us to the Nanchang countryside to a small village that they think is a lot like the countryside of Ruijin, the girls' hometown. Wow! To see what it might have been like for Abby all of those months...this is one tough girl. It was incredibly interesting and touching to see how simply these people live and how happy they are even in such poverty. Abby did very well with the tour until the end when we could tell she was getting a little stressed out (she and most of the other babies scratch their heads and torsos when agitated or stressed) so Sara took her back to the bus a little early and this seemed to clam her down quickly. On the way to lunch one of our guides, Kiki sang the most precious song to the babies about the little abandoned girls and the new parents who need them. She had many of us in tears and David caught it all on video. We then had another group lunch consisting of 10+ dishes and again it was very good and for such a little price (we're talking $4.00 per person). Our favorite item was the deep fried "Twinkie" dessert. But today Abby loved the watermelon, rind and all!

Tomorrow we get Abby's passport making us 1 step closer to bringing her home. It's hard to believe we are almost 1/2 through with our journey and yet we are so ready to get Abby home and settle in to our own routine - not living out of a hotel room that looks like a hurricane hit it and having to boil water for everything we need it for. We are not looking forward to packing it all up tomorrow evening to fly to Guangzhou on Saturday afternoon. So, if for some reason we don't update the site tomorrow it because we're packing like crazy! We're also having some issues with our photos and having enough web space. We're trying to work it out so bear with us. We love you all and can't wait for you all to meet this energetic, stubborn, funny, iron-willed kid we now know as our Abigail!

DAY 6 - December 13, 2006

Well, it was a rough night for us. Abby was off her nap schedule yesterday and missed her afternoon nap. She also ate very little other than formula after breakfast; we think this is due to her feeling crummy due to the tooth she's getting. All of this to say that she was asleep for the night by 7:30. So at 1:30 she was crying for her night time bottle. Since she hadn't eaten most of the day 4oz wasn't going to satisfy her! 2 more 4oz bottles later she finally setteled down and went back to sleep, but very uneasily. She tossed and kicked most of the night and was crying again at 5:30. We had her back to sleep by 6:00 and then were up at 7:00 for the day. We commented to each other that neither wanted to get up but it sure was nice to have such a great reason to drag ourselves out of bed! We had a bit of a tour of a historic site here in Nanchang today. Our group took a trip to the Tengwang Pavilion, pretty much the only "touristy" thing to do here in Nanchang. It was the first day we've seen the sun since we've been here so it was a good day to tour (even though it was a bit windy and chilly for the babies). It's very different sightseeing with a 1 year old! A lot less taking time to really look around and more time trying to make sure she's occupied and happy. We officially have the only baby in the group who hates the baby carrier. And since she prefers Sara so strongly, Sara was hauling a 20lb baby around for hours, up and down 6 flights of stairs, through gardens, etc.... Her biceps are looking pretty good already but her back is killing her. After the Pavilion our guides took us to a favorite restaurant of theirs. We happened to sit with all of the people from our group that wanted to try the food spicy, like they normally prepare it here in Jiangxi. It was the best meal we've had so far and one of the cheapest...especially for the number of dishes they brought out to us (over 10) and served it all family style on a huge "lazy Susan." And for all of you reading this who know David well you won't be surprised to hear that he's made quite the name for himself with the group at the breakfast buffet and our group dinners as the guy who will eat ANYTHING ONCE (can you say fried chicken feet?!) and the guy who can pile his plate the fullest! Everyone gets a kick out of what David will eat next. So after a full morning we headed back to the hotel at 2:00 and Abby and Sara crashed while David walked around the city a bit (see his cool photos below). Then it was to the pool with the entire family. Abby still isn't all that keen on baths with us (even though her foster family reports that she loves them) so we weren't sure about the pool. She wasn't thrilled but she did alright and we got some good family bonding time in. This perked her up and got her hungry (finally) and she played and ate all night. We decided we'd had enough Chinese food for a while and David went to the China equivalent to Starbucks, KFC! Yep, we had fried chicken for dinner and paid so little for it we'll be going back for sure. But due to the language barrier, David came home with far more chicken than he meant to. So, here we are at the end of our day, Abby's sleeping and that's where we're headed. We've been getting the sweetest most endearing e-mails from so many of you. Thank you so much for your support and love and excitement for us. It means the world to all 3 of us!

DAY 5 - December 12, 2006

Finally, a day with nothing really to do. The only official appointment was a checkup by a pediatrician around 11:00 am (sorry, no still pictures...but plenty of video). We weighed Abby today and we're pretty sure that we discovered she is a very healthy 20 lbs (9.1 kg)! During the Wal-Mart trip yesterday, we bought the medium diapers sized for 6 - 11 kg, but as we explained before Abby has no tutee, so they are actually TOO BIG - THEY DON'T FIT! All this required another trip to Wal-Mart. Sounds ok, except David had to take a taxi! He and new friend Sean Powell braved the 6 minute ride and on the return trip found themselves traveling in reverse while cutting across 3 lanes of traffic, one with an on-coming bus in it! Very exciting for the guys. While they risked life and limb, Sean's wife, Sally (short for Sarah!), came to our room with Caroline, the chubbiest-cheeked baby we've laid eyes on. Abby and Caroline got along just great playing with toys and eating cheerios and rice crackers while the new moms got to chat and compare notes. We are so excited that we will have them so close by when we move to LA this February. Then we got ready for our group meal in one of the many banquet rooms in the hotel. When we were escorted back we all felt very under dressed in our jeans and t-shirts as the table was laid with gold rimmed plates and glasses and the "silver"ware was gold as well. But none of the staff seemed phased. A 10, yes, 10 course meal followed and we ate things we had never tried before, like eggplant stuffed with grated pork, pork rib bits, sticky buns filled with lychee fruit (we ate it in your honor, Liz and Chuck!) but Abby could have cared less for much of what was acceptable to give her. She even spit out the plain steamed rice. We have to think her cutting this molar is part of the issue here. She was also running a low grade fever so we had to force some Infant Tylenol for colds down her when we got back to the room. This is what the pediatrician gave her for her nasty nose and teething pain. She seems to be sleeping pretty well with it so far.

As for being in China, the experience is strange and amazing. It's hard not to be able to drink the water - like not opening your mouth in the shower or brushing your teeth with bottled water poured into a glass you had to first rinse with boiling water also from a bottle. You have to make sure to not get drinks with any ice and to use Purell after every hand washing. This is all in a 5 star hotel. The beds are the hardest we've ever slept in...it feels like sleeping on plywood! We wonder how Abby will adjust to our soft bed (not to mention we have a king size bed for all of us here in China, but a queen waits for us back home). We have asked our guides to take us to a favorite local place for dinner before we leave as we would like to experience the "Spicy Culture" for ourselves!

Thank you to all who have e-mailed us. It is great to know you are following our journey and are enjoying our updates.