We are finally home!  I guess my last note from China did not post.  We had a long flight home, but finally arrived at about 12:30 AM.  Haile did very well traveling ( Thank God) and was very excited to see her new home.  She ran from room to room with a big smile on her face.  Our first full day home went very well.  She loves our animals a little too much, especially the cats. She is very busy exploring the house so I do not have alot of extra time, but things will settle down.  She continues to love swimming and even got into our cold pool.  Thanks for all of the great messages.  It was wonderful to read them while we were traveling.  Mike will post the last pictures soon.  Love, Tracy

Sorry we have not written the past two days, the timing has not worked out.  Friday night we left for Guangzou to get Haile's visa.  Her first flight was a little tough.  The pressure really hurt Haile's ears.  BaBA bought all the kids snacks for the flight.  Guess what Haile chose.  If you guessed a bag of marinated sardines you would be right !  Guess who she sat next to ?  Not BaBA!  Guangzou is a wlecome change.  We can walk to many shops and there is a Starbucks.  Today we are going to a temple in the morning and maybe river crusie tonight.  Haile had her first meltdown yesterday.  I woke her up from her two hour nap to eat ,and she cried for about twenty minutes.  Heartbreaking.  I think leaving Changsha was difficult for her and of couse the unkown.  The guide helped me speak to her and within an hour she was laughing and swimming with BaBA.  It is so difficult to see your child in disress and not know exactly what the issue is and not have the ability to talk with her.  Time to eat breakfast.  Love, Tracy

Ni Hao, We are all doing well.  Mike and I feel so lucky to have this beautiful, smart, funny little girl.  We know that you will all fall in love with her.  I am so glad we decided to adopt an older child.  She is a true joy and fits in so well with our family.  Emilia and Haile are discovering each other.  I think that once we get home they will find a lot to do together.  They laugh a lot. 

 

Today we are going to the embroidery museum, and this afternoon we may try to take the kids to a movie.  There is a huge movie theatre next door.  It is very hot!  Haile is doing great with both Mike and I.  For some reason she takes direction better from me...  This is funny to me because I am really the softie.  She has really enjoyed the pool and has made a lot of progress with her “swimming”.  The hotel also has bowling, which we did yesterday.  This was a great way for us to teach Haile how to take turns. 

 

She is very good-natured.  She definitely has an opinion and can be strong willed, but she does not tantrum when we say no.  This is a real blessing especially because we cannot converse.  I am slowly learning more Mandarin and she is trying more and more English. We are using the Chinese pronunciation for her name, which to us sounds like Hi Leur. 

 

We have felt very safe in .  Coming from Boston the traffic and driving habits of the Chinese do not seem as bad as reported.  Driving on the sidewalk is a little unusual, but I am comforted that I have not seen one accident.  I cannot say that about home!  Thanks for all the messages.  Love, Tracy

Happy Fourth of July!  We are halfway through our trip, and we are beginning to miss home.  I am getting sick of Chinese food and the heat is pretty bad.  We went to an ancient University where Chairman Mao attended today.  That was the extent of our tourism, which is fine because Haile is beginning to test our authority, and crowded places are no the place for that. 

 

She is doing very well, I think she likes the routine of the hotel- racing to the elevator with her brother and sisters, eating a huge breakfast at the buffet, swimming in the afternoon and watching Kung Fu movies in the afternoon while playing.  I am not thrilled with her TV watching, but she obviously knows the genre. 

 

We are discovering that she does not like soda and American style fast food.  She prefers very spicy meat.  I think that I am going to have to spice things up for her when we get home!  She is very smart and clearly wants to learn.  I think she is more interested in writing English words that saying them.  We are very sorry our translator did not arrive before we left and that we did not pack our Rosetta stone Chinese program.  We can communicate pretty well, but I am sure that it is difficult on her that we cannot have a conversation.  ,

Hello everyone,  We are all doing great.  Today we signed the offical paperwork to adopt Haile.  She is doing so well.  She is calling me Mama and Mike Baba and I got my first kiss!.  Her first words after tMama and Baba was watch and Griffin.  She thinks he is very funny.  She eats turtle, snake and anything spicy ( not crazy about pizza)!  After we signed papers this morning we went to Walmart for some provisions.  I was worried that she might tantrum when I said no.  She  persistent, but accepted no when I was frim.    She still made out like a bandit.  I thought that this was pretty good considering all the temptations.  She loves nail polish, hair clips as you can see and jewlelry.  One of the first things she noticed was my wedding rings and watch.  Everything is so new for her and she is taking it all in.  Today after lunch we went swimming for the second time and she really had a great time and let Baba take her around the pool.  Right now she is practicing her manderin characters in a notebook.  The next few days we will sight see a little bit and the we are leaving for Goungzou Friday.

We feel so lucky that she is doing so well and bonding to us.  She really is a very special little girl and I think will be a very happy member of our family.  Madeline , Griffin and Emilia are also doing well.  Madeline has tried snake , frog legs, duck tongue and octopus.  Yikes where did she come from ?  Griffin tried octopus and Emilia is prettty much living off of watermelon and sausage.  We have only had one non Chinese food meal so far.   I will write soon TW