The Home Stretch.....

Saturday July 2nd- We are in Guanzhou on the home stretch.  Domestic travel has been very interesting to say the least.  Delays are very common and a 2 hour flight takes all day.  Not up Joes ally.  Today in Guangzhou we saw some very interesting things.  This is the place where all adoptions leave china.  We saw bus loads of people with newly adopted chinese kids.  Ages from 16 to 1.  about 1/2 are americans, the other 1/2 from all over the world.  they have medical clinics here just for adopted kids.  Its quite the process.

Claire Rui Rui is still adapting.  She has dropped Joe for Quinton.  Today we decided its time for her to not be in charge any more.  She is very high spirited and will give her other two brothers a run for their money. that will be interesting to watch.  we are looking forward to coming home.  China has been great and the people are very nice.  We had a great visit in Beijing seeing sights and visiting Melissa's cousin and her family.  They were very accomodating to us and made sure we were very comfortable.

we received Claire Rui Rui passport today and filled out all the paperwork for her Visa.  When we land in USA she will be a citizen.  We would of been home a few days earlier but the 4th of July is a holiday at the US embasy.  we are going to a restaurant with all the other american familys to celebrate the 4th.  looking forward to coming home.  Our love to all.

Rui Rui not cooperating

The Great Wall

The Summer Palace

Blowing Bubbles

Tnienen Square

taking a break

Arrie Forbidden City

90th anniversary of communist party

Rui will finally hold her own Juice Box

rickshaw ride

and more bubbles

Cramped Quarters

Walking in the Park

Boat Ride on West Lake

Hotel View in Hangzhou

On West Lake

Broken Bridge

More Bubbles

Joe at Center of Universe

First Day of Church in Beijing China

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Went to a nearby park/garden where we did the bubbles thing.  She would laugh when Bubba tried to pop them all before they flew away.  Lots of smiles today.

Rui is get'n dolled up

Bath time goes better if she is wearing lots of pretty rings.

Arrie was disappointed earlier today that Rui didn't want any part of having her nails done.  We tried again after her bath and she responded with her little hands perfectly laid out so Arrie could paint away:)

Trip to KFC and a Horsey Ride

Joe got her to smile pretty big at KFC while giving her a horsey ride on his knee.

Joe and Rui

She's Smiling!

Elevator Buttons, Restuarants and a Big Fluffy Bed

Meeting Claire Rui Rui

R

Rui knows who her Daddy is...

Joe left this morning to work while she slept.  When she woke up, she was upset and stressed until Joe walked in.  She lays on him and whispers our names as he asks her to, lulling her back to sleep.

Rui likes tootsie pops and Joe

Our access to Internet and some Internet pages has been sporadic and frustrating.  I'll try to send pics later, but here's an update anyway.

Rui was pretty sad the first day.  Her little body was limp and she knew things were permanently different.  It sounds silly, but we would get excited when she accepted a tootsie pop. 

The tootsie pop continues to be our secret weapon.  She is rarely without a sucker in most of our pictures.  All the required photos for our adoption certificate, we had to remove the sucker.  The photo for the passport, we had to remove the sucker.  The family photo of her passport, we had to remove the sucker.  So, you see how it is.  We also got excited when she started to put froot loops in her mouth by herself because she had yet to do ANYTHING for herself She won't even take the tootsie stick out of her mouth when she's done!).  We'll put a french fry in her mouth and it will just stay there, half in, half out.  When you're not looking, the fry will disappear and with NO help of her hands!  So you see, these little changes make us very euphoric!

She definitely loves big, bad Joe.  I think she likes how loud he is and he seems to be able to make her laugh a little.  He's a lot more comfy to lean on too. 


She will say our names (when Joe asks her), Papa, Mama, Bubba, and Air-reeee.


She gets upset in any of our hotel rooms.  She prefers distraction and the noises of outside.


She definitely likes to push elevator buttons and she has 3 big oversize rings on her fingers.  They are too big to stay on very good, but she manages to keep track of them.  The necklace on the other hand...well, she won't be wearing it anytime soon.


We get lots of stares from people.  They see us all together and they know the whole story already.  Some people want to talk to her and me, but of course my Chinese is a little rusty:)


Not only is Joe a hit with Rui, but also the locals.  One day our cab driver's trunk wouldn't close.  About 8 other cab drivers were there waiting in the same spot to attract customers.  They all watched as Joe tried to fix it.  Of course he did fix it and the success was met with thunderous applause from ALL the cab drivers!  Hilarious!


That's not all.  We were walking to dinner the other night and a huge bus (filled with women only) had stopped to take a few pictures.  One woman having her picture taken, was trying to get Joe in the photo with her.  Little did she know she didn't need to be sneaky about it.  Joe jumped right in, put his arm around her and once again, THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE!!!  More HILARIOUSNESS!!!


We'll try to get some pics up soon.  It's harder to do here than at home.


Melissa

We get a giggle occassionally when Quinton let's her practice "Kung Fu" on him :)

Meet cute Claire Rui Rui

All I have are 3 pictures and one text saying, just picking her up now.  Here are the pictures that I received.  What a little cutie!  We love her already.