Headin' Home

Today our guides had our appointment at the Consulate and everything went great! They had no questions for any of the families. We took the famous red couch picture at the White Swan Hotel that all adoptive families take and the only crying baby was our little Merrin, it was pretty funny! Our agency had a photographer take a picture of the babies and a group with all the families and we received them tonight. The one of Merrin screaming is even funnier when it is blown up 8x10. We wanted to take pictures of the two Louisiana girls (Merrin and Bella) in their LSU outfits on the red sofa, Merrin didn't like that either. We took another picture with Leah in her North Carolina outfit and Merrin's crying made Leah cry as well!!

We celebrated with pizza at the Italian Restaurant and it was so good. We had dinner with the entire group since it will be our last night together with everyone. It will really be sad to leave all the families. We will really miss everyone but will keep in touch, our daughter's share a special bond and now we do too. We then had a little play group at the hotel so the babies could play together. Tomorrow we go to the Consulate for our oath ceremony and then we are off to Beijing. We will have two other families traveling with us and they will also be with us from the flight from Beijing to LA. Then we are by ourselves from LA to Houston to NOLA ... it will be a very long day. Please say some prayers for all of us for safe travels.

We have had a wonderful trip and feel truly blessed to have our little Merrin. We will never forget our time in China and the gift that we were given. We hope one day to be able to come and show Merrin her birth country. Thanks to all of our families and friends for your support during this journey we cannot wait for you to meet this little precious baby.

More fun (and food) with friends

Here are some more fun pictures! Love the picture of the girls clowning around. They are just so cute together.

Merrin's blessing at Banyan Temple

Today we had a great day. We started off with a blessing at the Banyan Temple which was beautiful and something we wanted to do for Merrin before she left her birth country. We thought it was important and the ceremony was very special. We then went to the zoo, Merrin was not very interested in the animals but it was something nice to do. We went and ate at a German Restaurant with Tonya and Brian and Bella which was pretty good especially the beer :) Mommy went shopping again while Merrin and Daddy took a 2 hour nap! We then went to dinner at a very good Italian Restaurant with Tonya and Brian and Bella and Chris and Stephanie and Leah. We had a great time and the food was really delicious. Tomorrow we head to the White Swan Hotel to take our group photos and just hang around in case the US Consulate has any questions. Please say prayers for all the families in our group that everything goes smoothly. Enjoy the photos. We love and miss everyone!

Happier pictures after the exam visit

Here are some more pictures to enjoy!

The dreaded first trip to the doctor

Last night we went and ate at a Cantonese restaurant. I like the food in Hunan much better but Joey seemed to enjoy it and even ate Pigeon; I was like no thank you! Merrin had a great night sleeping and we even had to wake her up so we could get breakfast before we had her medical exam.

Merrin was not happy at all you will see from the pictures. She screamed the entire time. Our guide Bob said Merrin does not like the Chinese people any more just the Americans. He tried to make her laugh before the exam and she started screaming with him but tonight she was laughing with him... I guess the girl can't make up her mind :) All the babies passed the exam and the Doctor said that Merrin actually has eczema on her face not a heat rash. She weighed 16.4 lbs, with her clothes on. She wore herself out with all the screaming and actually took a great nap today. I went and did a little shopping by myself while her and Daddy napped. We then had lunch at Lucy's again with our friends Krickett, Tim and Kelly and then we all walked around and ate ice cream which Merrin loved. We celebrated Elizabeth's 1st birthday tonight with dinner at a Thai Restaurant, which was really good and also had a wonderful cake. It is only 7:15pm but Merrin is ready for bed and so is Mommy! Good night from China.

Love,
Wendy

Being tourists

Here are more pictures from our free day to share a few sites of the city with all of you.

Love,

Wendy

Merrin's first shopping day with friends and family

Today we had a free day and we went shopping with our friends Tonya and Brian and their daughter Bella and Chris and Stephanie and daughter Leah. We shopped, stopped at Starbucks for coffee (which tasted just like home) and ate lunch... it was a fun day! We will do dinner tonight with the group and tomorrow we have the babies' medical exams in the morning. Merrin is doing great crawling all around the room and pulling up on all the furniture. She is not walking yet but loves to hold your hands and walk with you. She is a little wobbly but she loves it. In one week (August 2) Merrin will turn 1 and tomorrow will be our 1 week anniversary with our new daughter. We love her so much! Enjoy the pictures from Guangzhou.

Love,
Wendy

Merrin's first trip to Guangzhou

We made it to Guangzhou today and Merrin did pretty good for her first plane ride. We are both happy we had this trial run before our big travel day next Friday. We now know to make sure we are stocked with cheerios and crackers plus we need to get some new toys to keep her occupied for a 25-hour travel day. We checked into the Victory hotel around 2:00 and our hotel is very nice. We have a standard room but it has separate area with a computer and a desk, refrigerator and table and sofa. It is nice to have the extra space and Merrin enjoyed checking everything out before heading to bed at 7:00pm. This area is very neat, it kind of reminds us of Savannah, very different from Changsha. We ate at Lucy's this afternoon it is an American style restaurant. We had cheese burgers and fries which was very good! We will be trying some new local Chinese style restaurants tomorrow for dinner. Our guides are telling us we are the "young group". They said they have never had a group like ours who wants to leave the hotel and try new restaurants ever night! OK, I better go to bed. Merrin will be up soon, the girl does not like to sleep but she is so darn cute we don't care!

Love,

Wendy and Joey

Last night in Changsha, more pictures

Here are more pictures Wendy sent from their last night in Changsha. You can only post 5 pictures on one blog so I separated the pictures by countryside and group shots. Everyone sures looks happy! We all can't wait til they return. Glad Merrin's a party girl...she is coming home to a lively bunch for sure:)

Love, Mamere

Last night in Changsha, pictures of the countryside

Hello everyone. This will be our last night in Changsha and we will leave for Guangzhou tomorrow morning. We really like it here in Changsha and are sad to leave the area where Merrin was born but we are excited about getting to Guangzhou to complete the US side of the paperwork so we can then come home and show this little one off. Guangzhou is a much different area from where we are now. We have not really ventured out too much on our own over here, but in Guangzhou it is much more westernized and we will be able to walk all around and shop by ourselves and they have Starbucks so I am really excited about that! Today we took a ride to the country side and it was so different then what we have seen in the city. We saw rice patties and a water buffalo and it was just fun to see the local people and the way they live. All the babies are doing great and it is really fun to see their personalities come out more everyday. Merrin slept about the same last night and is now taking a nap. Her rash seems to be getting a little better, one of the Mom's gave us some hydro-cortisone cream so I that has helped. We went to the playroom and hung out with the other babies and then to dinner with the group, we will really miss the food here!

Lots of love from China,

Joey, Wendy and Merrin Francis

Playtime for Babies and Moms!

Thursday: We had a better night last night Merrin woke up alot but was easier to put down then the pass couple of nights. She has a bad heat rash on her face and has a cough and some congestion. We all call Merrin the party girl! She loves to be out and about and is mostly always just so happy. I think she does not want to sleep because she is doesn't want to miss anything. I tried to get her to take a nap today and put her in the baby bjorn to walk her up and down our floor but she just was babbling and bouncing up and down so we went back to the room and I started singing rock a bye baby and she starts dancing like a crazy baby! I finally wore her out and she is still sleeping in the Bjorn. We have not done too much today except Joey had paperwork to do for about an hour. Merrin and I went to the playroom and she played with her friends Annalise and Kelly. All the girls seem to really like being around each other. Me and 3 other moms went to get massages and the dads went walking with the babies. You can get a foot massage, which also includes your neck, for 1 1/2 hours for 10.00 US dollars or a body massage for $15.00, so I am looking forward to that.

Enjoy the pictures of our little spicy party girl, she was so worth the wait!!!

Love,

Wendy

Babies, babies, babies

Today we went to a park to see the eclipse and afterwards just walk around. We were stopped by alot of the locals wondering what all these westerners were doing with Chinese babies. Joey was asked to have his picture taken with some locals! They are all very nice and some, when they realize that we have adopted the girls, will tell us thank you. The park was very nice, clean and alot of the locals go there and exercise and dance or play cards and chess.

After the park we went to a embroidery shop and the work they do is so beautiful. We came back to the hotel and ordered room service for me and Joe, Merrin ate cereal and prunes. The girl loves prunes, well she eats just about anything. The only issue we are having is sleeping, I don't know if it's the tooth that's coming in or what but who needs sleep:) I keep telling Joey we have been doing alot of sleeping the last 6 1/2 years! When we ordered room service they had french fries with my sandwich which I was very excited about but Merrin was just as excited every time I would give her a bite she would start dancing. (Susan she reminds me of Nate, she dances just like him!)
Joey and I decided to venture out by ourselves and go to a bakery and baby store not to far from the hotel. I have followed a ton of blogs and read so much about the driving here and trying to cross the street, but to experience it for myself was crazy and very frightening. Alot of people describe it as playing frogger and truly that is what you feel like when you are trying to cross. We will all go to dinner tonight and tomorrow. We just have paperwork and we will just hang around. Merrin has been really great and everyday she shows us more and more of her personality, she is definitely showing us her spicy hunan side!! She will go to both Joey and I but will cry if I leave the room which is a great sign of bonding, so we are very happy with that. We just love her to pieces!! Lots of love, Joey, Wendy and Merrin