We made it Home!!!!

We got up at 4am Saturday morning in China and Arrived in Newark, NJ at 12:15 am Sunday Morning, but with the 12 hour time difference we actually were traveling 34 hours on 3 different flights and a 2 hour drive home. We went to sleep at 5am and woke back up at 8am, which our bodies think it was 5pm. All very confusing but the bottem line is we are finally home.
Lauren sleep a good portion of the 13 hour flight from China to Chicago so that helped alot. She did not like being in a car seat for the very first time. There are no car seats in China you hold the baby on your lap. The actual traveling part of the trip i will not miss at all. We have decided the 6 -8 hour drive to the Outer Banks will be a cake walk next time, but is the longest trip we have in store for quite a while.

Lauren seems to be adapting quite nicely. She let my sister pick her up at the airport and has played nicely with her cousins Isabella and Caitlin. She also sleep the same time as us and is now napping at 1:30. She is still the happy go lucky girl she was in China and as long as we keep filling her belly that should continue!


Matt could not go to sleep at 5am he finally passed out at 1pm. He was up for almost 48 straight hours.
He had fun on his trip to get his little sister and we could not be happier how he has reacted to this whole thing. He is a great kid and we are lucky to have him.

It feels really good to be home. Our beds felt great. Our family has stocked our fridge.
But best of all is the feeling of having a baby around the house again.Nothing feels as good as having your baby smile as you enter the room. Or getting big belly laughs when you tickle their feet. Or the deep look into your eyes as you feed them a bottle.

This was a grueling 5 year process capped with a very long 2 1/2 week trip, but it was worth every moment of the wait. I can't really put into words all the feelings we are having but to say thank you to what ever force brought Lauren to us.

Thanks to everyone for their kind words and thoughts through this process. It helped alot to have such supportive family and friends. I hope those of you who didnt know my middle name was Elmer will forget this new information. I hope everyone enjoyed the pictures and my babblings and ramblings. It helped us to know we were still connected to the real world and get us through this trip.

We had an amazing once in a lifetime experience, we really enjoyed the trip and getting to see where Lauren came from. I hope everyone gets to meet her soon.

Love,

The Haig's
 

Last Post from China

Hurray , it is friday night and we leave at 5:30 am Saturday morning.
Everyone is ready to go and be home with our family and friends. I think Lauren will do just fine with the crazy family she just entered. I feel a little sadness leaving China. We have been here for 2 weeks and we have been treated very nicely. Yes, we get lots of stares when we are out, but mostly out of curisosity.
Plus we are leaving the only place that Lauren knows as home. She has no idea where she is going and why.
So it is a little upsetting mixed with a lot of  excitement.
I know she will have many more opportunities for health and education in America and that is what mattwers most.

We did our oath and received Laurens visa - she is know legal to both leave China and enter America.

On the way to the Consulate - dont I look tired!

Matt and Lauren talking baseball - She is alrready a Chase Utley fan

My three favorite people in the world!!!!!!

On the river cruise. It was a nice ride down the Pearl river. We had the normal crazy buffet choices of pig knuckles, goose liver, and chicken feet. We did not eat alot. The sights were very nice. The whole city is lit up along the river.

Me and my baby

Our hotel from the water

Lauren and her friend Devyn

Ready or not Chalfont the Haig's are coming home!!!!!!!!!

The journey has come to an end - Our dreams have come true - We have a beautiful daughter to add to our handsome son - We are complete!!!

Sorry - been spending some quiet time with the family

Sorry for the lack of updates!!!!
We have been falling into somewhat of a routine.
Breakfast buffet, playtime in the room, nap, pool time, playtime in the room, dinner , bed

Tuesday we went to a 1400 year old buddhist temple to have Lauren blessed by the Monks

We all took of our shoes, kneeled reverently in front of the giant Buddha statue and the elder Monk  started his solemn chants and banging his little gong thinghy. We were feeling the presence of Buddha when the Monk's cell phone went off in his robe pocket. He politely answered it and apparently told the caller he was in the middle of a blessing and would have to call back. Funny, the old world meets the new world, huh.

We then hit a local market place. We were happy to see this sign

 

But we elected more local chow

Scorpions and centipedes on a stick - YUM

Time for a Mommy and Son moment

The bathing suit queen in 2 more of her stylish ensembles

 

Matt thinks she has thunder thighs!

Matt and his sister in the playroom

Some various shots of our happy little girl

Blowing more bubbles

Of course she is not always smiling

This was after the pool when she was wore out and kicked over her snack bowl

This afternoon we go the the US consulate building to take the Visa Oath which will make Lauren ours to the American Government and when we touch down in Chicago she will automatically become an American Citizen.

We are schedule to finally get our river cruise this evening, I will post those shot tomorrow

Love and kisses - The Haig's

Random things

Matt tried his hand at feeding Lauren some cereal  - FAIL

Matt tried his hand a changing his first poopie diaper - FAIL

He gave up after getting the diaper open and seeing the present inside

Finally found a shoppe I wanted to go into

Matt agreeing to another one of his Dad's stupid requests

Our guide in Nanchang - Michele

She was very nice and was responsible to keep us busy and aide the Chinese paperwork through the system

Our guide in Guangzhoe - Aron

She is responsible for keeping us busy and getting the US paperwork through the system.

Guangzhou

We settled into our last home for the trip - rooms 1730 and 1731 White Swan Hotel
This city is much more cosmopilitan than Nanchang and not as crowded as Beijing.
The hotel actually sits on a little island about 5 blocks square.
We ate last night at the famous Lucy's cafe. It was full of mostly Americans looking for a traditional meal.

 

We went to this very nice park in the city. It had plants from all over the world with some kiddie stuff sprinkled in. It was a nice quiet outing before I had to fill out more paperwork, thid time for the US government.
Here is Mommy and Lauren at the park

The park was too much for our little girl

Our baby loves to talk, she is just babbling away and talking gibbersih (of course I understand her)
when she gets a good head of steam she actually starts blowing bubbles out her mouth. That is what she is doing here.

This ones for you Caitlin

Our little group of world travelers

Matt and Lauren before we hit the pool.She really loved the water. She floated in her tude until we were all pruned. Unfortunately,  hotel policy says no pictures at the pool. I guess too many people would be taking pictures of the American Buddha at the pool. (yes I have gotten a few comments that I look like Buddha,I am sure it is because of the twinkle in my eyes)

Tried to take a picture of a cat who just escaped from the restauant down the street, but it is a little blurry. The cat was in a hurry, I wonder why?


Daddy's little monkey gets ready for bed - Good Night family!!!!!!!

Today was our Zoo trip, it was a small zoo not as nice as the Philadelphia zoo

But they had a Panda

The Panda is my kinda guy, he basically lays around all day while people bring him snacks and drinks

Lauren took another heat induced nap

She did wake up for the ride back to the hotel

Made it to the last stop on the journey

We have made it to Gangzhou and the White Swan.
Unfortunately our flight from Nanchang wasdelayed about 2 and 1/2 hours due to thunderstorms in the area.
The babies did better than the adults. We didn't get into our room until almost 1am in the morning.
The good news the breakfast buffet was as advertisized. This made Daddy and Matt very happy.
Some quick pictures of the hotel. This is the lobby - pretty awesome

View from our room

From the outside

Lauren went for her physical at the local clinic - she weighs 16.8 lbs and is a very healthy little girls.

Check out the nurses! They still wear the little hats and white uniforms, no scrubs with homer simpson or spongebob!

Lauren recieved her Chinese passport, lists her birth name and will allow her to leave the country.

Next is the visa meeting on Thursday which will allow her to enter the U.S. and then Chalfont, PA

This picture was taken the morning she was given to us. We are saving the outfit she came in so we can give it to her some day. All she will have from her orphanage will be this outfit and her bottle which we saved also. She didn't even come with a diaper.

I thought I fell in love with her when I saw the picture for the first time, but I KNOW I fell in love with her the first time I held her. It is amazing how the whole family is bledning together. We have had her for only a few days but it seems like much more. There are times we still do not know what she needs when she crys, she does have top teeth coming in and is having some poop problems (all of us actually).

But everyday you can see she knows us better and feels more and more confortable with us.

Babies from orphanages need the trust factor the most. They need to know we will be there when she crys, feed her when she is hungry and rub her belly when she needs it.

Matt says hello to his family and wants Brian and Tommy to know he will eat at least a whole Sam's pizza his first night at the shore, so bring your cash! He is very much excited to spend some time at the shore with his cousins and Lauren appears to like the water also and cant wait for her first boat ride.

Marianne and I send our love - 6 more days to HOME!

Last 2 days in Nanchang

We are spending the last 2 days in Nanchang getting to know each other and doing some sightseeing.
This is Laurens friend from the orphange being adopted by a woman who lives in Royersford so they will be able to see each other in the future. Her name is Devyn and she is about 5 days younger than Lauren but much tinyier. Alot of people have asked if they are twins.

We wnet to the People Park in Nanchang today, to get some Sun and fresh air. It was a very beautiful and busy park. In China the average retirement age is between 50 and 60. Most retired people go to the park every day. Some exercise, some dance, many play cards and we saw many playing instruments and singing.

Family photo time

Matt and Lauren spend some quality time together

She loves to nap

Introducing the new Queen of the house sitting on her throne

Eating her fruit

This morning we went to the Temple and saw the Monks and a big Buddha (resembled me a little bit)

We received more documents today including the finding ad which is the ad the orphange places when the receive an abandoned baby. It was very sobering to see, the poor baby had been left at the front entrance of the orphange a day after she was born. Every day there are pages of the ads in the papers.

We are blessed to have her and to offer her the world!

One last picture of Lauren and her protective big brother

On to the last leg of our trip - closer to home and everyone we miss and love, including our cat (boy is she in for a surpise we are bringing home a tail puller)