Day trip to Heavenly lake

Today we started out at 10:30 to Heavenly Lake, which is located up in the mountains near Urumqi. We drove nearly 1 1/2 hours to get there. Once you arrive at the "park" you have to take a small bus up the twisting, turning, near-death cliff mountain road. The kind that when you look over the edge from the vehicle your life flashes before you kind of mountain road?? You know what I'm saying?? I don't like to drive these in a car.....I really didn't like it in a bus!! But obviously we survived. Once you finally get to the top of the mountain then you walk up the rest of the way....about 15 minutes, to the actual lake. It is a beautiful sight with mountains on both sides of the water and also behind. There were snow covered mountains in the distancce, and they have already had snow this fall. We then took a long winding trail to see a smaller lake and the water fall and stream that come from Heavenly lake and head down the mountain. It was very beautiful. We went down, down, down stairs to get to it, so unfortuantly we had to go up, up, up stairs to get back!! WOW Ok, the great wall was worse, but this was pretty bad also!!
I'm still coughing from my slight asthma problem that only kicks in when I'm getting too much exercise. Add in the fact that we were like 6000 feet up, breathing in cool air, I couldn't breath really well while up there. Can you CIAR girls overnight me an inhaler?? Just kidding!!
Sha Mei walked most of the way, but fell asleep on the way back in the van. At the top of the mountain they have an area for the local people....can't remember starts with a K....anyway they
sing and dance on a stage there, I'll put up a picture of that also. As we headed back down
we stopped at the resaurant and had the Nang bread...."pancake bread" it was very good, they cook it in a big stone oven and stick it to the sides of the walls of the oven. Also we had some mutton soup.that was very good also.

More pics

Here are more pics from our day yesterday. We were not allowed to take pics at the museum.

Anyone who is wondering yes these are dried snakes. Also seahorses in the jar!! Apparently

they make tea out of them and then drink it. Some sort of medicine!! I'll take my western

pill popping anytime!!!

Pics from Grand Bazaar

Rick couldn't get our computer to work, so he put our pics on to the hotel computer. Hope they like them! These are of the Grand Bazaar, fruits, clothes , pomegranate juice which Riley had to try.....tart to say the least!! Riley also had to have one of the traditional hats seen in the picture. His is black and white.

New room, Bad computer!!

While we were out today at the mummy museum the hotel called and said they wanted us to move to a new room. We said why?? They said they had repairs to do on the floor we were on and it would be noisy. So after we returned today we started packing everything up and the bell boy loaded us up and moved us to a new room on the 21st floor. The only problem is that this room doesn't like our laptop so we can't put any pictures up!! I can use theirs to blog without
pictures. I know all you guys really want is the pics, so we will have our guide Jessie try to help us get it fixed tomorrow.
So today we first went to the Museum of Xinjiang History. It was a very modern beautiful building with displays of many interesting things. They have areas to show many of the local minorities including Uygers.....who actually make up about 51% of the people here. They had exhibits of ancient relics, clothing, houses, jewelry, musical instruments and more. I think about 10 minorities were represented in the displays. There are actually many many minority groups here. I think she said around 48??? here in Xinjiang province. We also saw the mummy exhibit and had a museum guide who spoke English fairly well. It was very interesting, as these mummies are not the type found in Egypt for example. The mummies here are naturally made from the dry weather, and because they were buried in sand. They were very well preserved!! They had clothes on, hair, fingernails etc. Riley liked this and Sha Mei seemed to also. When we had finished at the museum we headed to the Grand Bazaar which is a local market here in Urumqi. First thing we did was eat at a traditional Uyger restaurant. I had rice with chicken, which I shared with Sha Mei. Rick and Riley both had noodles with mutton and mutton kabobs. Sha Mei can put down the meat when she is hungry!! She was eating our meal, and Rick's mutton. Our guides asked for ours to be "not spicy" so it took a little longer for us to get our food. I forgot to mention we have a local guide today and tomorrow.....Jing. She is from here in Urumqi and is very nice and speaks very good English. You may see her in our pictures when we ever get them on here!! We also have had about 20 different types of hot tea while we have been here. Today at the Uyger restaurant we had a local tea, and I could tell it was different from the others we have tasted. I must be getting the hang of it!! After eating we went thru the bazaar and saw all kinds of nuts, fruits, dries fruits, all for sale. We did buy some raisins...Sha Mei seemed to like them very much. Xinjiang is very famous for it's grapes and melons at this
time of year. We also saw clothing, jade, carpets, furs, Chinese medicine items.....very interesting!! Many very odd things that they make tea out of and drink!!! ICK is all I can say!!
We went to the market this evening and are back in the room for the night now. Hopefully we can get some pictures up tomorrow!! Love to everyone!

Earthquake

I just heard on the news(CNN the only English channel here) that there was an earthquake in Tibet. I didn't catch when it was, but we are fine and didn't feel anything. Just didn't want anyone to worry about us! We are quite far from Tibet, even though it is right under this
province of Xinjiang. We are off to the Grand Bazaarr today and then the mummy museum.
Riley is very excited about that. I'll post pics tonight!! Love to all.

More Urumqi Pics

Oh yes did I already mention the word princess?? I wanted a girl and I got one! She is constantly wanting her picture taken and stopping traffic posing every 10 feet!! She also loves to take the camera and take pictures herself!! Did you see the great one of me??....She took that.

Also we went swimming today after we got back from our adventures. Last night she wanted to go really badly, and was laying in the floor pretending to swim because we were not responding to her wishes!! Rick called Jessie and had her tell Sha Mei that we would go swimmimg today.

Jessie told us this morning that she also told Sha Mei that she should go to sleep with her new Mama and Baba and should not cry. Sha Mei responded with ...yes I know that. She is something else, just like her two brothers!! Of course we wouldn't know what to do if we had a quiet, shy, obedient child!!! LOL

Hey Skiles' if you read this leave me a comment with your blog name. I can't find it. I know the password....it's easy. Hope all is well with the three of you.

Day out in Urumqi

Today was a free day for us, normally you would stay close to the hotel and let your child get more acquainted with you. In our case, since she is doing so well and she is old enough to understand what is going on we decided to go out shopping with our guide Jessie. Sha Mei needed a different pair of shoes, because the ones she had on when we got her were boots. They are very nice new boots, but when we get to Guangzhou it will be hot weather and she will be wearing some dresses and shorts. We also needed some taller socks for her to wear with her boots while we are here in Urumqi. Jessie took us to a big department store where we bought her a cute pair of shoes and some longer socks. After that we walked all around several blocks from our hotel and looked at all types of people, shops etc. Then we decided to try and find the book store. After walking for nearly 15 minutes and asking about 4 different people we did find the bookstore and purchased 2 word books for Sha Mei with chinese characters and pinyin chart.

After this we were getting hungry so we stopped at a very small family restaurant a block from our hotel. Jessie said they had traditional Xinjiang food there including mutton. (which Rick had asked to try) It was very good, and Sha Mei ate a lot of "rice with meat." Jessie thought maybe her foster family had made this type of food for her.

Notice the pin striped size 4 Levis jeans? She was pretty happy with her new clothes.

Urumqi Info

This post is for Kim, Becky, Dianna and Vickie!!! Kim.....I asked your questions to the director(that was the women in the pictures) She said that two of the children are still there. She gave me their names also. Secondly she said that the women in the picture was Drew's nanny . That she would have been the nanny for 6 children.....the six boys in the picture. She was very happy to see Drew and said he looked well. Becky.......I gave her all the pics from you of the weekend and also of your three children together. She was very happy to see them and said they looked
very well also. I asked her to show them to the foster mothers. Dianna.......I asked her about Sha Sha , and she said yes, the girl with a vision problem?? I told her that she had a new diagnosis and that she can see quite well in dim light, also that the bright light blinded her and that she was partially color blind. She seems very surprised that Gillian could see so well, and was very pleased to know she is well. Last but not least, Vickie.....I gave the director the gift for
Graces' foster mother, and she looked at the picture albulm and was so surprised at how big she looks! I told her she is very healthy and well. That made her very happy.
Our guide Jessie told us that the director chose Sha Mei's name and we said that we liked it very much. She seemed fond of Sha Mei, and was very nice and pleased to hear about all of the children.

Night number One

It's morning, Rick, Riley and I are up. It's only 7:00, so Sha Mei is still asleep. I can not believe how great she did last night!!! I gave her a bath, which she didn't really want.....but had great fun once she got in. She learned the word hair while she was in there because she didn't like it when a hair would float around in the water!! Once we came out of the bathroom the boys were in bed asleep so we sat on the floor and played with her panda bear beach ball. I turned on the TV, and started flipping htrough the channels. She saw a show she wanted to watch......Just do it. Some of you may have seen this before, where the contestants run through a obstacle course and usually end up falling in the water?? She loved it, and has obviously watched it before!! She would yell out everytime someone started to do the course"just do it" in English!! When I saw her yawning, I motioned for her to get in bed.......and she just got in bed next to Riley with her stuffed animal and blanket from Nana Sandy. I was on her other side on the rollaway bed. She closed her eyes and went to sleep in about 2 minutess......that was it!! No crying ........ nothing!! She slept all night, even though I had to move her back up to the pillow two times...she moves around alot ! We are meeting Jessie at 8:00 for breakfast, so I better get ready!! Love you Rorey!! Can't wait for you to meet your sister!!!!

More Pictures

I forgot to mention that She Mei had like 6 layers of clothes on today, and we so far have only gotten 1 layer off of her, but soon we will be getting in the bath tub, and figuring out just exactly what she is wearing!! Also the curly part in her hair was just barretts with fake hair attached. She has very pretty dark hair, it is soft and has gotten fairly long. She was doing a dance in the last picture here, and the director says she loves to sing and dance!!

Did I call her a princess??

OH MY goodness didn't I call her a princess?? Well boy was I ever right!! LOL I can not believe that anyone EVER thought this child was "cognitively delayed" She is as smart as a tack!!

The direcctor of the orphanage talked with us for quite a while and she said that Mei Mei was very bright, she is in Kindergarden already, and she has been running the foster home. They gave us a formal portrait of her with her foster Mom and Dad and sister. She has already learned several english words, including...... Hello, OK, Riley, thirsty. She counts up to like 30 or more....... I couldn't keep track, of course my Chinese isn't as good as her's!! HAHA She was shy with us for about 2 minutes, and ever since she has been laughing and playing, holding hands with Riley and has used the bathroom 4 times(which is a big deal in the adoption world), she ate

french fries with ketchup this evening. She ordered her own lunch of Chi fan...cooked rice....and

stir fried vegetables!! We couldn't order for ourselves but she did!!!! The director said this is the type of child they would call a "little adult" which means she talks in long sentences and uses words like an adult. Just like her brothers!! HAHA She also rolls her eyes at you all of the time ....just like Rorey does!!! We are very happy, and are overwhelmed by how wonderful she is!!! Rorey she knows your picture and calls you big brother. More later,Love to everyone

Urumqi Pics

Monday Morning

We slept pretty well last night, I did take a nap yesterday afternoon, well all three of us did. I just could NOT keep my eyes open!! So last night at 8:30 I took 2 tylenol PM's and we all went to bed. I couldn't believe Riley slept in the afternoon and then slept again and didn't get up until Rick and I woke up at 4:30. We are getting ready to go to breakfast, and then we will meet our guide Jessie in the lobby at 9:45. We should get Sha Mei at 10:00 AM. I'm a little nervous, but not as bad as I would have thought I'd be!! I did have a few waves of panic while we where in Beijing.....mostly at night when I was laying there and couldn't sleep!! I would think, why did I do this?? What was I thinking?? Our life was fine the way it was!! But I think that is normal, as I had the same thoughts when Riley and Rorey where born. I'm sure things will be perfectly fine and in a few months we will wonder how we ever got along with out her. I'll post some pictures tonight, well hopefully if we can get this hotel computer figured out!!

Urumqi

We are here in our hotel in Urumqi... 4 hour to get here. It was fine, nothing compared to flying to China!! Jessie has been telling us all about Xinjiang, the local customs and different ways of doing things here. She also has talked to the director of Sha Mei's orphanage and she said that Sha Mei was very healthy. She said when she was small she acted like a special needs child, but is now caught up with all of the kids her age. She also said that she loves "beauty" Which Jessie seemed to think meant she likes "girly" stuff. I agree and told Jessie that Sha Mei always has on bracelets and hair clips and fingernail polish in the pictures we have gotten in the past. We are heading out in a few minutes to go to the market for bottled water, and then get all of our paperwork ready for tomorrow morning. I'll post more later!! Love to all!!

Computer Trouble

Sorry I have had some trouble getting to our blog and keeping on time with the info!! It's 4 AM here, and we are getting ready to leave for Urumqi. I woke up and thought it was morning but when I looked at the clock it was only 10:59!! I was miserable the rest of the night, snoozing a litttle then waking up and getting nervous again. Hopefully tonight we will sleep better as we will be settled into the hotel in Urumqi until the 11th. Tylenol PM here I come!! We are getting Sha Mei tomorrow morning, then going to do all of the paperwork. I hope to post pictures of her that evening. For now here are some more pics of our tour yesterday, and some of our"beijing duck banquet"!! Also one of the many photo shots for Riley with the locals!! HAHA he is eating it up! I think these girls thought he was much older than ten, They were nervous and laughing like he was a movie star!!

Love you Rorey, can't wait to see you!!

Oct. 4th Beijing

We woke up this morning at about 2:00 AM, and thought it should have been 8:00AM!! We did try to go back to sleep, and ended up at 5:45, which isn't to bad I guess. had breakfast at the hotel here.....big buffet and had "normal" food! We met the other two families in the lobby at 8:30 to start out on our touring. First place we went was Tianamen square, which lead us into the Forbidden city. It was a cool cloudy day, with LOTS of people milling around since it is a national holiday here this week. After we were done at the Forbiden city our guide Jessie had reservations for us at the "Beijing duck Banquet" restaurant! We had several different foods including the famous "Beijing duck" dish. It was very good, and even the two boys in our group enjoyed the meal. Next we took off for the great wall. I think they should change the name to the great stairs!! I have never seen so many steps, all of different depths and heights, in a row before. Wonderful place to say "I have been there" but enjoy the pictures because unless you are in tip top shape you are going to DIE on the way up the thing!!! Only three of us out of our group went all the way up......that being Rick, Riley and Will(son of another couple with us) Laurellee aand Steven made it to the wall part, but didn't follow it to the end, I made it about 2/3 of the way and said "this is good enough!!" the other couple Dana and Steve(can you beleive another Dana?) went up partially and turned back also.(they are Will's parents) Tomorrow morning we fly to Sha Mei's city....Urumqi, Xinjiang province. we have to meet Jessie in the lobby at 5:30 AM. WOW that's early. Jessie is going to Urumqi with us, and will be the one who helps with all of our adoption paperwork. We take off at 7:45 and arrive at 11:45.

We Made It!!

Well we are a here!! HORRIBLE That is the first word that comes to mind when I think about
that plane ride!! Awful, long, cold, uncomfortable and time warping. It took 12 1/2 hours to get
to Beijing, which after 3 hour we started saying "only 9 1/2 more hours" We left Chicago at 12:33 Pm, when we arrived here in Beijing it was 3:00 pm the next day!! We feel like we have been run over by big yellow buses!!! Tomorrow we will be going to the Forbidden City and the Great wall. I promise to try to get some pictures on the blog after tomorrows outings!! Riley is out cold in his clothes, maybe I'll just leave him there!! We gotta get in bed, just wanted everyone to know we are here safe and sound! Love to everyone, but especially Rorey!! Love you!!

We are on our way

This is my last post from this side of the world! We are taking off tomorrow morning at 4:30AM for Chicago O'Hare International airport!! Next time I post we will be in Beijing China! Everything is packed away in the rental car, and we are ready to take off!! I still can't believe we are this close to getting our daughter. WOW! This has been a very long journey........very long. I just hope Sha Mei is prepared for our arrival, she may be the only one who IS calm!!
Just joking, Rick will be cool as a cucmber I'm sure! I on the other hand will NOT BE! Say a prayer for our safe travels tomorrow, and check back later for an update!!