View of Chongqing

This was taken from Eling Park which is the highest point in Chongqing. It has been very hazy each day and it is difficult to get good pictures. Chongqing reminds me very much of downtown New York City. Tons of highrises and huge tv screens on the buildings.

We learned a very interesting fact about the one child policy that I wasn't aware of. The one child policy only applies to the Han group of the Chinese people. All of the other minorities such as Mongols, Huns, tibetians etc. are allowed to have two children as they make up 10% or less of the total population. We were also told that outside of the city in the countryside people are allowed to have many children, some even up to 5 especially if they are farmers. We did not realize that this policy only applied to the Han which is the largest ethnic group in China. Two different guides told us the same information. Very interesting...

The Bird Nest

I haven't kept up with the 08 olympic stuff but while we were in Beijing, our driver took us by the Bird Nest. This is the main stadium venue for the olympics. It really does look like a bird's nest. It is HUGE. these pics don't do it justice.

Star Quality

We have certainly had alot of eyes on us since we have been here. Some folks have been subtle about taking our picture and other have been very brazen, walking right up to us with their cell phone and snapping a few pictures. This little family was very cute. They were at the Chongqing zoo and enjoyed looking at us. When Jim saw him taking pictures he got out our camera and took a shot of him. They thought that was very humorous.

The Chinese people, especially the older folks are very curious about us and the babies and walk up and try to talk to us. They pat on the babies and give us the thumbs up sign. One group of ladies approached me at Eling Park and I had our guide interpret for me. They told me that Katie was a very lucky baby and she seemed to be a very happy baby - which she is. It was nice to be able to communicate with each other!

I scream, you scream...

We all screamed for ice cream! This is Katie's first bite of ice cream and she loved it!

China is awesome but we are all ready for some American food. Last night we were taken to a very nice Hot Pot. There is a large pot in the center of your table with two sections. Once section is boiling with spicy seasoning and broth and the inner ring is a mild chicken based broth. Think melting pot fondue...sort of! The resturant had a moat around the tables with little red boats that floated by with various meats, fish, veggies and pork. You selected what you wanted off of the trays and dropped it into which every seasoned pot you wished - hot or mild. Now I know the things we saw floating on these boats were delicacies but most all of us went home hungry! They ran out of chicken before we got there so that blew it for most. The rest of the items were fresh eel, intestines, stomach, whole catfish, mutton, crab and some other seafood type things that we weren't sure what they were! It was a very interesting experience nonetheless! We have been treated like royality everywhere we have been!

Chongqing Zoo

Today was our trip to the Zoo in Chongqing. They are famous for their Giant Panda house. The panda's were awesome. Katie rode in a stroller for the first time and seemed to like it. She was very restless last night and is feeling pretty lousy right now. We are a little worried but hopefully she will spring back to her jovial self tonight or tomorrow. Keep her in your prayers that it is nothing serious.

Hammin' it up!

Katie has a mouth full of teeth - 4 on top and 4 on the bottom and we have since learned that she loves to bite! She had Jim's room key and kept putting it in her mouth and showing off for us!

A Trip to Walmart

We took a trip to the local Walmart in Chongqing. It was a two story Walmart with the grocery store on the top level and everything else on the lower level. Lots of people came up to us to look at the babies and the store staff would run over to us and ask us with mostly broken english if they could help us find something. Talk about customer service! The US could learn a few things from China in this area.
After this excursion we had lunch at a local hotel resturant. This municipality use to be part of the Sichuan Province which is famous for it's hot and spicy foods. That is exactly what was served today! Jim and Katie loved it. Her nanny told us that she loves hot and spicy foods, congee, steamed eggs, and fish soup-yum...

More Morning Pics and Her New Favorite Pastime

She LOVES being on Jim's shoulders as you can see below. This was one of Taylor's favorite things to do and Jim tried it this morning after she woke up. She had the biggest smile on her face. When Jim tried to take her down she wrapped her legs around his neck and bent over to look at his face. She is SO funny!

Can I Get a Burger With Those Fries?

This child screamed for french fries when she saw them! The pictures don't show it well but we couldn't get them to her fast enough and if we stopped for just a second she would hop up and down and point to the plate they were on.

Tomorrow is a shopping day for the baby. We will be going to the Walmart in Chongqing. This city is HUGE. We are at the JW Mariott and it is top notch. The rooms are very spacious with sitting areas, king size beds and cribs. Since we will be here 8 days I am SO thankful for that. The resturant staff are making congee especially for the babies tomorrow for breakfast which was very thoughtful.

Internet access is relatively expensive in the hotel so we are probably going to blog every couple of days. The next couple of days are shopping days and then we will be going to the Zoo, Eling Park and The Flying Tiger Museum so we will post pics in between there sometime.

Catching up...The Great Wall

The Great Wall is simply unbelieveable. It's one thing to see it on tv or in pictures but it is something else to see it in person. How in the world did these men create this on the slopes of the mountains here? It was too steep for us to walk very far simply because I'm ridiculously out of shape and Jim's knee just couldn't take it so soon after surgery. There were a couple in our group who made it to the top!

Loving the Camera

Isn't she photogenic? The camera loves her. We are finally back at the hotel after a long day. Normally the adoption isn't final until the next day when the registration paperwork is done, but for families adopting from Chongqing the registration is done the same day so we are officially her parents as far as China is concerned. We have her adoption certificate to prove it! She is so tiny. She is not the baby in the video I have posted before as she was in foster care. She really doesn't look like her referral photo and I could not pick her out of the babies in the room.

We were told we would be called one by one to get the babies. We got off the elevator in the Civil Affairs office and turned the corner and there they all were! It was chaos as everyone tried to find their baby. The orphanage director and the nannies came up to each one of us and asked the baby's name and pointed them out where they were in the room. She has a pretty bad runny nose and a croupy cough. Lots of spots all over her that look like bites but other than that she is ok

The Happiest Baby in the Whole Wide World!!

Miss Katiebug was a little shy at first and then she turned into a giggler! She smiled and giggled the whole time. We could not believe it! Most of the other babies were crying and upset but Katie was calm and playful. We are so blessed!! We will post more pics in a few minutes. She is so awesome! She weighs about 18 lbs and we were surprised to find out that she has been in foster care for the last 5 months and just returned to the orphanage 3 days ago. She can wave bye bye and we just found out that she LOVES frenchfries. She hasn't crawled yet and can't walk but she can roll over and sit up.

Great Marble Boat at the Summer Palace

This is the marble boat at the Summer Palace of Empress Dowagger Cixi. It is enormous!

More from the Forbidden City

The first two pictures are of the Emperor's chairs in various halls in the Forbidden City. The third is of Place of 10,000 Springs and the last is of rocks below one of the room areas.