Following Where He Leads...: Elisabeth

Elisabeth has a precious smile…and an adorable laugh!

What a big, fun day! It started out with our group going to pick up our daughters' passports (they're Chinese, since the girls are still officially Chinese – the girls will be American once we land in San Francisco). Only one parent had to go on this trip, but we both wanted to go (because Sissi was having the bus stop at a bookstore first!) and thought Elisabeth would have fun. And boy, did she! Instead of being stuck on Mom's chest with her head on Mom's shoulder (standard position since Monday), she was sitting up, looking all around and grabbing for things. We bought her some adorable Chinese kid's music CD's and books that are written in both English AND Chinese.

Back at the hotel Elisabeth drank her 11:00 a.m. bottle and took a nap – but not a long one because we all had to head to the Nanchang airport to fly down to Guangzhou. We had to wake Elisabeth up (haven't done that before), which we hated, but she did just fine and didn't even cry (until we changed her diaper, that is!). The sweet thing then stayed awake from that point (1:30), until we FINALLY arrived in our new room at the White Swan (9:15). She put on a show the whole time! Elisabeth can now wave "Hey" real good, clap when we say "Yeah", and give five when we hold a hand out to her! And she is getting pretty good at "blowing kisses". She is really a ham! When she gives five, she will then clap "Yeah" for herself! We got her first smiles out of her during our long wait at the Nanchang airport (our flight was delayed). We hope to catch one on camera today.

We had to feed Elisabeth her 4:00 p.m. bottle while waiting at the airport (picture below), and then Mom thought for sure she'd sleep a little on the plane ride. No way! Too much interesting stuff to
play with and too many interesting people to look at…and touch! (She loved Mr. Shane next to us, and kept stroking his shirt and sticking her fingers in his mouth, YIKES!) We didn't all get to ride together, but Granny Linda did get to sit by Mom and Elisabeth. And it sure is a good thing – because she is quite a handful now! Climbing all over like a monkey – standing on Mom's legs and looking
back over the seats to see what's going on back there! Thankfully, the take-off and landing didn't bother her ears a bit. Mom got Elisabeth to laugh once on the bus ride from the airport to our
hotel by kissing her on the side of her neck!

So, she stayed awake the whole time and didn't get her 8:00 p.m. bottle until 9:30 (bad Mom and Dad only packed one bottle in the diaper bag, knowing that for sure we'd be in our room by 8:00!) and
was so content and playful the whole time. (Until she saw Dad making her bottle, that is, and then she started fussing and reaching for it – "Oh yeah, I'm hungry…and I'm hungry NOW!") After the bottle she fell right asleep. (Our bedtime/naptime ritual is that we lay her down, she cries real good for about 10 seconds and then is fast asleep.) Us four adults didn't get to eat until about 10:15 (room service hamburgers and French fries that cost $16 each, but we were too tired and hungry to care!). I'm (Joli) now writing this e-mail at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday because we just could not stay awake to do our journal after our big, tiring day. I just took a picture of Elisabeth in her new crib (for lack of a better word) here at the White Swan. (It is a very strange looking contraption – like a 1 ½ foot high baby mattress that has a rectangular hole in the middle for baby.) Saturday we have to take the girls for their medical exams – so if you hear screaming, that will be our daughter!