music anyone?

BANG BANG BANG, CLANG CLANG CLANG!

the guys discovered that Chloe's dishes make great gongs

taken 5/19 8:34am

I'm ready to go Mom & Dad!

We had created a "barrier" in the hotel room as the marble on the floor was really slippery and we didn't want the kid's to fall. Zachary at least once a day climbed onto this suitcase (or in it if we left it open). Here he is letting us know he is ready when we are!

Taken at the White Swan Hotel Guangzhou, China 5/12.

roughhousing with Daddy!

the boys thought it was hysterical to play on the bed w/ Daddy! (we know...bad precedent, but that's where we had the most room in the hotel room!)

taken in White Swan Hotel Guangzhou, China 5/12 8:40 pm

trying out the stroller

5/18 was the first official test of the stroller. (Had to try it out before their dr.'s appt 5/19)

It's functional- for a double...not extremely heavy (key word there being extremely), it fits in the back of the car, and there is some room (not a lot) underneath to store a few small things per side.

Check out the balloons! Thanks Karen!

more pic's

the plan is to try to get notes written down from each day and then put the corresponding pic's.

right now the kid's naps are not quite what they were in China so we'll do what we can.

Hopefully as we get them settled into their new routine I'll have some time to blog again!

for now, here are some random pic's.

Rough time change adjustment

Ok....again I'm sorry we haven't been blogging.

We are trying to get adjusted back to Ga time. UGH!!!!

The boys slept fabulously in China. No such luck here. We know they are having trouble w/ the time adjustment and since they are....so are we.

In China we were very fortunate to discover their sleep schedule was for real. They woke up 6:30-7am, napped 11:30 till 2:30 or 3pm and went to bed at 9-9:30pm and might wake up once for a wet diapey.

Now, back in the states w/ the time change is a whole other story. We are trying to get them back in to their familiar pattern. But so far no luck. They are exhausted....and so are we.

Right now it is one of them waking up about every 2 hrs during the night. (couldn't they get this timed together at least?)

Actually they are doing amazingly well considering...me not so much. Thank goodness for our wonderful friends and neighbors who have been taking such good care of us! several of them have delivered dinner. We can't express our thanks enough. We probably would have just skipped those meals as we were to tired to make anything. So thank you again!!! (and again, and again!....btw Andrea I think Scott might like your lasagna better than mine! I think it's the chunks of tomatoe, I'll have to add those to mine.)

Our flight back from China was long. VERY LONG! One of our flights got cancelled due to weather so instead of flying from Guangzhou to Beijing to Chicago to Atlanta we had to do Guangzhou to Beijing to Chicago to Charlotte to Atlanta. From the time we got up to get ready for our flight till the time we made it back to our house 36 hrs. Long travelling day.

Well, this post took about 4 hrs to try to write. so will post as is without anything further.

Will try to fill in details whenever I can.
-Jenni

Random Photo's

in front of our Hotel....I love these "blow up" entrances they use to attract attention

lots of bikes, mopeds, etc....
This is the building that most of the babies stay in at the orphanage our boys are from. There is also the "Lily Care Center" which is a room staffed by our agency where babies that need more care are taken care of. That is in the next building over to this one. Their orphanage is made up of 5 buildings. Each building has one of the characters from the olympics on it. The whole facility looks very nice. This is the Children's Welfare Institute in Zhengzhou. It is called the "new" orphanage as the children used to be in the social welfare institute with older patients. Now there are just a couple children left at the SWI, but there are approx 280 children at the CWI now. Most of these children have needs that require some sort of special care or attention.


a minivan!

ornate shrubbery outside the gates of the Chen House....

The Chen Family Temple was built as a collective effort by the Chen families from 72 counties all over Guangdong Province at the end of the 19th century during the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty. The temple was built to honor and worship their ancestors. It was also used to house Chen family members who came from all over the province to sit for the imperial examinations. Today, it is the largest and best preserved example of the architecture and artistry of the time in all of Guangdong Province.