We are home and VERY tired!

Hi there everyone. Thank you all for your love and support. We are home! We arrived in Newark around 2:00 Friday. After going through immigration at the Newark airport, Sophia is officially a US Citizen. Hooray! The 15 1/2 hour flight from Hong Kong was not that bad. Sophia cried upon take off and landing (more like screamed) but the rest of the trip she did way better than I could have ever dreamed. There were a few very restless times where we did a lot of walking and "crawling" but she didn't upset too many passengers. He he he... Hannah was amazing!!!!! She slept a lot and watched many movies. We really couldn't do too many activities as they kept the plane really dark so everyone could sleep. However, we Paul and I didn't sleep more than about an hour each. We brought the low protein rice with us and the flight attendant was awesome and cooked the rice for us for the flight. It took her several times to get the cooking down (rice /water ratio due to the high corn syrup issue) but Sophia didn't seem to mind.

We then had a 5 hour layover in Newark which was a good thing as immigration took forever, we had to go through customs, claim our bags, re-check our bags and then go through security AGAIN. It is such a crazy process. Then the gate was wrong and we really didn't realize it until seeing the gate was for Copenhagen....leaving about 30 minutes before us we realized it couldn't be right. But we figured it out and arrived at the gate about 45 minutes before boarding.

The departure from Hong Kong was very interesting and we almost missed the flight due to our travel agency having Sophia's lap ticket not the same as our tickets. Long story...but we made it. Whew.

We are struggling pretty bad right now with jet lag.....we are all exhausted. Lots of crying not wanting to sleep from all 4 of us.....most though, Hannah. It is VERY taxing on her and Sophia just doesn't want to sleep when we are sleeping. This soon shall pass.

Love to all. I can't find my USB port in the luggage but as soon as I have time and not too tired I will post some pictures. Thanks again for everything.

Warming up in Guangzhou

We are finally in Guangzhou! Hooray!!!!!!! We left the freezing cold Beijing on Friday. It was 0 degrees. All went fine with check in. Our guide was fantastic and told the check in counter about the huge suitcase we have for Sophia and that it is all her medical supplies and they didn't charge us any extra for all the luggage, not even our own luggage which was wonderful. We boarded the plane right on time but then ended up waiting on the runway for 2 hours. It was truly taxing on all of us. I had the 2 hour 40 minute flight all worked out with food for Sophia. I was NOT counting the 2 hour delay on the runway. It was awful but Sophia and Hannah were both wonderful. When we arrived in Guangzhou it was 70 degrees and Hannah and I were skipping in the airport and all of us were shedding our coats and sweaters.
It is so wonderful here. We love it. The Asian Games are being held here in Guangzhou (not on Sha Mian Island but still a lot of activity)....The Asian Games just finished up and now are the Special Olympic version of the Asian Games which is just as exciting and big for the city!! It is great.
We had Sophia's medical exam the other day and she cried just like Hannah but it was really quick and we were out of there in less than 30 minutes. Yesterday we visited another Buddha temple and today was a Folk Art Museum. It was the same tour as last time but fun to see again. Sophia is doing really well but still getting pretty tired so we are hoping it is not the metabolic formula / food and just normal for a 14 month old.
Tomorrow we will be doing the Red Couch picture at the White Swan. We are at Emma's place and just purchased Hannah and Sophia's Chinese dresses for the pictures. They are super cute! I am using Emma's Internet service so I can't download pictures at the moment but after the Red Couch picture tomorrow I will try to download more. Although I don't miss the smoking, I do miss the convenience of the Internet across the street from our hotel in Beijing.
We miss everyone and can't wait until we get home. Hope to email you all tomorrow. Miss everyone!!!!!!!!

Last day in Beijing

Hi there, one more full day in Beijing and then off to Guangzhou. Thank goodness. I am trying to download pictures from the Great Wall Tour so I hope they work. Today we picked up Sophia's passport and then off to visit Olympic Village. It was huge and freezing so we were not able to really see everything but we did see the Bird Nest and the Water Cube which was super cool. Hannah picked out really cute small stuffed mascots from the Olympic games which represent different parts of Chinese culture. Pretty neat. Hope you enjoy the pictures. There is a cute one with Sophia on the bus making her funny "Ma" noise and smiling. Super cute and she does it all the time.

We ate at a dumpling restaurant today. Our guide, Grace, who is really nice, took us to an authentic dumpling restaurant. It was so yummy. We had about 6 trays of different dumplings and veggies on our table. It was a little embarrassing but fun!

We REALLY miss everyone and hope all is well. Take good care of yourselves. Hugs and kisses from Beijing. We can't wait to get on that plane Friday morning......Less than 48 hours away.