Home 1 week

We have been home for a week now and it all seems like a distant memory. Every day is filled with such joy and discovery. As of last night both Ruth and Craig are adjusted to the time and sleeping through the night (thank goodness!). Ruth seems very happy, she is eating well, playing with everything, smiling and laughing all the time. Craig is slowly adjusting to sharing everything, we are working hard to each make 1 on 1 time for him. One moment he yells she is playing with his toys and then he is playing with her and her toys or reading a book to her (even though he can't read yet). He does give her hugs and kisses all the time. Craig went back to school Monday and when Jessie went to pick him up Craig got to bring Ruth in and introduce her to the class.
Ruth has her first doctors appointment tomorrow with the pediatritian, and we go to the surgeon next Wednesday to see when they will want to fix her palate.
Jessie is getting the hang of getting 2 kids out the door in the morning (to take Craig to school or gymnastics).
We continue to shop for clothes for Ruth, we expected her to be on the small side but she is a solid 18-24 month size.
Well that is it for now, more to follow.

Thanks for reading

Welcome home

We landed in Detroit on Wednesday March 5th at 1pm (and Ruthie is now a US citizen), after going through customs and being greeting by some great friends (Jack, Gina and Jackson) we made it home for 30 minutes before we had to take Craig to the doctor, he hadn't been able to keep anything down for 2 days. He did manage to keep water down for the last 12 hours (after throwing up in the airports in China and Japan) doc says a virus and he just ate mac and cheese for the first time in 2 weeks (it's 4am) and is on the mend although he did lose 4 pounds. It is great to be home, every moment is something new for Ruth, she is not sure what to make of the cats yet. We go today to fill out insurance paperwork so that we can take her to the doctors to have her all checked out. She has been up since 1am, eating cereal, applesauce and a bottle and she is not looking tired yet, we will all be praying for a nap today. We thank all of you that followed our story, there are so many more stories and photos we will have to share with all of you (most of you remember me always carring around a photo album of Craig).
I will continue to post on here as things come to me or new photos I think you must see.

Bob, Jessie, Craig and Ruth Douponce and Kara Giummo (our technical advisor and big helper with the trip)

Monday night

We started today with new introductions/ The first was a four legged long tailed one at breakfast. It was some kind of lizard running around under our table. No one else seemed to notice, of course we were amuzed by it. Craig has been our international ambassador, this morning he was watching the fish in the Koi pond while the rest of us finished breakfast and he introduced himself to a family from Singapore. Jessie went over to rescue the family and ended up talking to them for 20 minutes. They couldn't believe how much Ruthie truley liked us after only 6 days with us. The mom thought Craig was a very nice boy and she gave us her phone number and email address and told us to look her up if we are ever in Singapore. She told us how lucky Ruth was to end up in a family like ours and like everyone else we told her we truley are the lucky ones. We went up and Craig, Ruthie and Bob took a bath, Ruthie loved it!
After breakfast of course we went to Shamain Island to finish up our shopping, the lady at the olympic shop was able to take a credit card by using the machine at a store down the street?, works for us we loaded up. I jumped in a taxi and ran the stuff back to the hotel while the rest of the fam went to the park to play. Craig had fun and played with several kids (again neither understood a word the other said) Ruthie walked around and picked up lots of leaves. The way she looks at leaves, trees and flowers it is as if she has never seen thm before. We dropped off the last load of laundrt to get us through the last 48 hours, with a 5 year old and an 18 month old we underestimated how dirty we would get everyday. In all we dropped off laundry 4 times and it cost us about $45. Most of the shops on the island do laundry and they all discount it about 40%. We took ours to China Doll next to the youth hostel, Lisa, Ann and Grace took good care of us. Lisa by trade carves the marble stamps with your american and chinese name, we bought 5. We bought a lot of Jade family balls there also, as well as just about every silk purse they had. We ordered a picture of Craig and Ruth etched unto a piece of stone, and a picture of Ruth painted on the inside of a bottle, they will deliver them to our hotel tomorrow.
Tomorrow we leave for the consulate at 2:30 and we should be back by 5:30, before and after that will be packing, packing and packing. We will have Ruthies' visa to enter the US and we will be ready to come home. We leave Wednesday about 5:30 am. We are all looking forward to getting home, but wednesday will be a long anxious day.
I haven't mentioned our agency, but without Lisa at AAI we wouldn't have our complete family yet. Also the guides here have been amazing, top notch, super, Jane in Beijing packed a lifetime of memories into 2 days, Lilly and Judy here in Guangzhou have been awesome, we never had to worry about any paperwork (except when I left to go to carefour and Jessie didn't know my filing system and Judy came to get the 1 form we had to supply) but they found it as soon as I got back.

It's 8pm and Ruth just took her botlle and is sleeping soundly, Craig is watching Snow Buddies and about to nod off and I am sure the rest of us will be close behind. He has had a cough and the sniffles fo a few days, hopefully he will be up to the plane ride home, thank goodness it is only 15 hours coming back home,

I will try to write 1 last time tomorrow night, but if I don't we want to thank all of you again for your support and prayers in helping us complete our mission.

Bob, Jessie, Craig, Ruth and Kara

Sunday

Well it is Sunday night and we are all really tired today. We took a 30 minute ($5) cab ride to downtown Guangzhou. We were searching for Olympic stuff, There were shops in Beijing but we needed to stay under 44 pounds and 1 checked bag per person (we didn't make it anyway) The sports center we went to has the upcoming table tennis world championships and they had a park out side with a couple dozen tables for people to play on. There were a couple of parks, lots of people flying kites. We checked all the shops but no luck. We played at the park for awhile, the parks here are nice, they have a lot of exercize equpment. The only other non asians we saw were 2 German guys (and we saw them later on Shamain Island also). Both Craig and Ruth fell asleep on the way back to the hotel, Ruth woke up but Craig slept for about 3 hours. Our guide (Judy) came over and went over the paperwork she needed for tomorrow and we paid our final fee (we hope). I took a cab to Carrefour to buy more formula (we haven't been able to find hers here in town) Then we took our daily trip back to Shamain Island to eat, pick up our laundry and some of the personalized items we ordered. We ended up taking a cab back as we were all too tired to walk.

Ruthie was pretty funny today, I think she likes the sound of her laugh as much as we do, she kept giving me her foot to tickle, she would laugh like crazy and give me her foot back again. She tests us from time to time with a little fake cry to make sure we are there for her and laughs when we pick her up (not much chance she'll be spoiled)

more tomorrow off to dreamland ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Saturday night and it's all alright

Hi everyone
Today was a good day in Guangzhou. We made it down for breakfast just before they closed (10:30) we did some shopping to buy Ruth some more clothes, lounged around the hotel room for a few hours. Craig and I went to the park on Shamain Island (the street markets were very crowded today) we didn't stay at the park long because Craig was being hounded by parents who wanted a picture of their kid with him and teenagers wanted their pictures with him, it was a little creepy. So we walked around the island and down by the water. By then Jessie, Kara and Ruthie had made their way over and we did our major gift shopping and had dinner at Lucy's. I had to buy a suitcase to get all of our stuff back to the hotel, I sprang for the super big suitcase ($25). We met more families from america, and shared our stories. Ruth did all of her favorite things today, laughed, walked, held by all of us, ate, and then started it all over again. The kids were very tired tonight, Ruth fell asleep in 3 minutes and Craig fell asleep 1/2 way through Game Plan. I think the adults will be close behind. Looks like another sunny day in the mid 70's tomorrow, we wish you were all here with us.

Good night ;)

Holiday Inn Shifu

Just wanted to say a few words about our accomodations. It is a wonderful hotel, the staff is very friendly and helpful, as I have said before the rooms are huge, there is about 10 tv stations in english and our dvd player hooked up to the tv to play endless scooby doo and full house marathons. One of the bellhops (Frank) has become Craig's buddy, he has helped on many occasions. The beds are hard but we find them comfortable, the internet service works well, (.15 per min, $15 max per day) . The bathrooms are nice with an enclosed shower and a large tub, they give you 2 free bottles of water everyday but the shops right outside the hotel sell water for about .25 a bottle.The food in the cafe is good, the other restaurant has eel, shark fin and pigeon on the menu so we will not be eating there. The laundry is expensive but there are so many places on Shamain Island that will pick up and deliver your laundry for 1/10 the price. It is a fun 15 minute walk to Shamain Island everyday as we pass all the shops, there are several McDonalds near our hotel, I am sure we will try it once before we leave. We have never been scared or worried about walking anywhere around the hotel. We do need to remember to bring the Hotel information with us as the taxi drivers don't speak or understand english very well.

That's it for now we are off to buy Ruthie some clothes.

Talk to you all again soon.

March 1st

Good morning all
It is March 1st here so I am sending out a happy birthday to my mei mei (little sister) Suzette, we love you and miss you and are looking forward to your visit in a few weeks.

Well it has been almost 4 whole days since our family was completed and her is what I can tell you about Ruthie so far: She is strong willed with a tight grip on things, she loves to throw things and have you give them back to her so she can throw them again, she loves to be picked up and laughs every time, she is a good walker, loves to play with her new toys, she is a very good eater, she will come to you if you hold your arms open, she loves to touch everything, she is ticklish on her feet and belly, she is teething, she sleeps well, last night when I rocked her to sleep I thought she was out and went to put her down she grabbed on to me with both hands (first hug from her), she cries out when she is hungry, she has little cries 10-20 times a day as she is grieving leaving the only life and people she has known so far in her young life. This isn't everything but I will leave it there for now. We should have more pictures posted by tomorrow morning your time

Bob, Jessie, Craig, Ruth and Kara

lazy

Well we went back to Shamain Islan again, but it was already 7:30pm so we took a taxi (a whopping $1.25) The driver on the way back took us the long way so it was $2, but it was an interesting drive. Craig fell asleep in the taxi and Ruth is taking her last bottle of the night. The Hard Rock Cafe closed so that saved us some money. We plan to take a taxi to Sports City tomorrow, they are supposed to have the best Olympic souviners. It is about 1/2 hour away. Not much else planned for this weekend but shopping and taking pictures, we will post as many as we can. We finally figured out how to view the blog and read the comments from hear, thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers and words of encouragements. We would not have been able to do this without our friends and family (and generous credit card companies). We understand the weather at home isn't so great so I don't think I will get any sympathy for the sunburn I got yesterday.
Take care for now, talk to you again soon.

Friday afternoon

It is 4pm and we are loungeing around in our hotel room. Ruth just woke up from a 3 hour nap, sounds pretty good right now. We just posted some pictures, hopefully no one is offended by the toilet but in many places this is what the toilet looks like. We have not tried to use it but we are curious how you actually use it?. Ruth had her physical today and it went well, she is about 24 pounds and healthy other than the repaired lip and clef palate. We went to a Chinese restaurant on Shamain Island for lunch, it was very good (and a whopping $17). We are getting ready to gear up to stroll the streets looking for bargains and take some pictures. We had to go to the bank of china yesterday to exchange money and saw some new stores, converse, tupperware, a honey store, chopstick store etc. We are going to look for Olympic souvenirs and some teas to bring home. Tomorrow we will do the big shopping on the island, most likely at the stores that take credit cards as we have spent far more cash than we thought we might but many places did not take credit cards. We will need to buy a few more outfits for Ruth, the first ones we bought were a little small. We did make it to the Jade market and bought a Jade bangle for Jessie to wear and pass on to Ruth when she is older. We will stay close this weekend, Monday our guide will take all of our paperwork to the consulate and we will go back Tuesday for the ceremony and pack for an early flight Wednesday. Our flight leaves at 8:30 am, so we need to leave the hotel by 5:30. We arrive home at 1:30 pm (after we pick back up the 13 hours we lost on the way here). After customs and such we hope to be home by 5pm. The plane ride will be another first for Ruth, wish us luck.
Talk to you all again soon.

Bob, Jessie, Craig, Ruth and Kara