Home and New Pictures

Things are settling in for us here at home. Here are a few pictures from this week. She is such a happy baby!!!

HOME IN THE USA

Hi All!
I just wanted to quickly update the blog to let everyone know we made it home safely. We have been home now exactly 24 hours, and all things considered, we are doing ok.
The long flights to and from China are just killer!!!! There is now other way around it, the flights are baddddddddd!!! I guess once you survive that, you can survive anything!!
We are adjusting to US time, and Julianna is doing great. I am trying to shake the worst cold/sinus infection ever. I will post new pictures later.

We are doing great!!!

Hi from Guangzhou!!! I have to apologize for not posting much on this blog.   I have  been communicating the most through emails to my sister and cousin.   It is a bit hard for me to post to the blog and I find it even harder when I can view the blog to see what I have said in the past. So, a quick update.   We are all doing great!!!   No one is sick.   Julianna has an ear infection that was found yesterday at her medical exam.   She now has an antibiotic.   I know she had the ear thing last week when her cold was so bad, but anyway, she has some medicine now. You never  would have know she felt bad.   She is all smiles and laughs.   She drinks a ton of her formula with rice cereal.   Usually she wants 2 8 oz. bottles each time.   She loves Caroline!!!!!   Caroline is her personal fetcher when she throws her toys. She loves her bath time now.   She has even kicked in the pool her at the White Swan. I am doing some shopping which is fun.  Today will be a busy day with the Pearl Market and a dinner cruise. I have not really been homesick like I thought I would.   I think the 2 weeks has gone by really fast.   We will be home on Saturday. Have fun looking at the pictures.

We are in Guangzhou!!!

Hi All!!!! Just a quick post to let everyone know we have made it to the next part of our journey. We left Nanchang, Jiangxi today at noon and took a short flight to Guangzhou.   It is here that we will spend the next week finishing up the paperwork to bring Julianna home.   We already have her passport.   We will get her visa in this city. We are having a fantastic trip!!!   I am surprising myself by not being home sick.   Julianna is doing great.   She is really opening up to us.   She is all smiles and laughs.   She loves Caroline, and she already has her playing fetch with her toys she throws down. This trip is so organized and everything is so easy. As I type this, both girls are asleep on the king sized bed, and I am looking out our window to the beautiful Pearl River. Here are a few pictures over the las few days.

China Day 5

Hello, we are in Nanchang, Jiangxi.  We arrived her on Sunday afternoon.  We just had time to check in to our rooms and go to a meeting room to hear instructions from our guide, Evelyn.   She told us to bring everything - cameras, camcorders because the babies were due to arrive at 5 pm, but they may show up early. What a crazy feeling to be sitting in a room glancing out the door to see if any babies are there. The first two babies arrived and it was so sweet to be able to watch it all happen.   It really was not how I expected.   The babies came from 3 different orphanages, so they all arrived at different times.   Wouldn't you know, we would have to wait to the last for ours to arrive.   Caroline was watching and waiting looking out the front window from the second floor where we were. Finally, they got there.   She was dressed in a yellow split pant outfit.  Only one layer of clothes.   Thank goodness because she was sweating so much.  They told me she had been car sick. She cried just a little when I took her.   She is so sweet and pretty.   I love her eyes. She had a pretty restful first night with us.   Monday was a busy day with paperwork appointments and a trip to Walmart.   We had Pizza Hut pizza for dinner. Caroline is finally feeling herself again.   It has taken 4 days to be back to normal.  Jet lag and motion sickness stink. Here are a few pictures of our first days with Julianna.   We love her so much!!

"Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore"

I hope this post makes it to our blog.   When I try to access blogger here, it only comes up in Chinese!! We are all fine and adjusting to everything.   The time change and motion sickness kicked our butts yesterday, but I think we are on the mend.   Caroline was able to get a good 9 hours of sleep, and she is feeling much better!! Our big international flight was delayed by 7 hours, so we arrived in Hong Kong at 2 am their time.    We ventured out yesterday with the Winslows to Hong Kong Disneyland.   It is much smaller than ours, but still fun.   The parade was a hit with Caroline.   They sprayed water from every float. The trip is very organized everything is taken care of for us.   As Gary says, "How could anything go wrong?   We are doing the same things 18 other families are doing." Today, we fly with all the others to Jiangxi to get the babies in the afternoon.   Wish us luck!!!

The Spruill's have arrived in Hong Kong!!

Hey, We made it into Hong Kong after traveling on the"flight from Hell". 15 hours is crazy!!!!!!!!!!!! I managed not to open the plane door and take my chances by parachuting out!! LOL
We all got some sleep on the plane. Gary probably the most, then Caroline then me last. Lots of kids on the flight were air sick including Caroline. That made me feel terrible.
Once we got to the airport things were better and easier. Customs easy, luggage easy (and it all arrived) we found our guide easily and the ride to the hotel was easy. All 3 families were in a tour van. We didn't even have to waste time and energy checking in to the hotel. Our guide had done that for us and had the room keys ready.
We crawled into bed around 4:30 am here and slept for about 3 more hours. I think my body is still on your time. We still plan to go to Disney today with Tara's family and call it an early night tonight. We take a short flight tomorrow to where the babies are and get them in the afternoon. I hope it is not too stressful tomorrow.
I will try to call home today, but I am not sure the cellphone will work.
I miss the pets alot and I can tell Caroline does too. I haven't tried to post to the blog yet. This is the first thing I got to.
I'll email again later.
Love, Lanie