Day 12 – Wednesday, November 29, 2006
By Art

Well as with all good things, our time in China has come to an end. Kayli has come so far in such a short time. She started holding our hands today. Our bonding is well on its way. We also started showing her pictures of here brothers as well. Finally, we made it ALL official today with our visit to the US Consulate General’s office here in Guangzhou. We took our oath and then received our IR3 visa for Kayli, which grants here US Citizenship upon clearing immigration in Detroit tomorrow.

We also had a great talk from our coordinator, Anna, who was crying when she said she felt so lucky to have this job where she finds so much meaning. In addition, she thanked us for caring enough to come over here and adopt their orphans and asked us to return when they are grown. She did so much for us! She was awesome.

We had dinner with the Waters-Smith klan from Portland. They have their3-year-old son in tow who reminds me so much of Sawyer that I just want to scoop him up and snuggle and wrestle him to peices. They have to stay till Friday since there are not 5 seats left on the plane tomorrow.

We said good-bye to some friends that were flying out already tonight, including our good friends Scott and Kim Kunde, from Phoenix. We will have to visit them in Feb or Mar when the MI winters are too much. We will see the rest tomorrow on the way to the airport.

Speaking of that, they will come to get our luggage at 4:45 AM, yes AM, so I better wrap up here and get some sleep as we have 24 hours of travel tomorrow.

With love from China,
Art, Tonya, and Kayli Rose Blanchford

Day 11 - Tuesday, November 28, 2006
- By Art

What a beautiful day!!! It is a very sunny 70 degrees with a light breeze. We took time today to discover the grounds of the hotel and they are great!!! There is a BLUE pool tucked back in a tropical rain where you can’t see or hear anything of a city. Kayli took a nap on me as I lay in the sun out there. It was very relaxing.

We waited on pins and needles as CHI handled our consulate appointment, and everything went smoothly. Kayli and I killed the time by rough housing in the Mattel-sponsored playroom. She has become SO comfortable with us. The first day, if I held her 1 inch from my body, she would start to cry. Today in the playroom, I could lie on my back, let her all the way down to the side with my right arm out straight, then pass her to my left hand, and do the same and she laughs uncontrollably the whole time. We had a blast and met many other kids there as well.

We had a nice lunch outdoors at Lucy’s again (Chinese food is getting a little old for usJ).

Then this afternoon, we made the kids group picture on the famous RED COUCH of the White Swan. You never heard such a crying fest with 14 babies sitting together without their parents in the middle of their nap times. It will be a priceless memento though.

We had our last group dinner as some are flying out tomorrow night. We ate at another local Cantonese restaurant, but it was the best meal we have had since we were here. Kayli ate so much, broccoli, eggs, sweet potatoes, and peaches, that she turned into Buddah himself. We thought she might pop. We had a BIG birthday cake for all the babies and a few toasts. It’s amazing how much can transpire in a few days. As Tony Robbins says, all change (and we are talking life-will-never-be-the-same change) happens in an instant, and we have had many of those instants these weeks here in China. I sat next to the author of The Fast Boat to China, which made for some interesting conversation. We have made some very good friends here, especially the couples from Mt. Airy, MD (where my cousin Emerson lives) and Phoenix, and we are READY to be home as well. We really miss our boys!

We also had a great call from Cousin Jim today. Really connected and his first-grade son wanted to know what happened to Kayli’s parents. That is was an interesting discussion.

We have one more piece of shopping to do….a new suitcase to take everything home in!

Did I mention that Kayli likes to use the big potty?

That’s all for tonight. We get our US visa tomorrow and then fly out first thing Thursday morning.

Day 10, Monday, Nov. 27th
By Tonya

Well, it’s almost time to come home and we’re ready! It’s been a long trip away from the boys and we’re all ready for us to get back home.

Art went for a run this morning and discovered the "all-living-things-that-come-out-of-the-water" market. Quite a sight....and SMELL!! He also found a great park where the first westerners landed years ago and learned that the locals are very friendly and helpful.

Today was Kayli’s medical exam. It’s basically to make sure everything’s functioning the way it should. She’s officially 18 lbs. and 30 inches tall. The medical clinic was full of Chinese people and dozens of adoptive families. We all filed in (those in our group of 13 families) and we had to go to three stations for her check up. They checked to make sure she was still a girl J, measured her head and listened to her heart at the first station. Then they weighed and measured her at the second station and then she went to the ENT station to have all those things checked. She’s in perfect health.

She’s in size 12 mos. and 12-18 mos. clothes so she seems to be an average 1 year old by American standards. I fix her hair in pigtails a lot since the barretts won’t hold her hair. The Chinese people love her pigtails. They comment on them all the time. I don’t think they fix their hair with them over here by the way they’re talking but they think they’re so cute.

One other great thing about this island is that it is covered with realistic bronze statues doing various daily activities from children playing to someone videoing his friends, to someone talking on the cell phone. Here is one of my favorites that is close to our life

I shopped a lot today. The leather shoes they have for babies are so soft-soled, pretty, and have squeekers in them and are only $3!! I’ve bought several pair. I think they’d cost about $30-40 in the states. They have GAP and Gymboree clothes here too and those outfits are about $4-7 each (dresses and pant sets). I’ve gotten several of those too. We’ve gotten some jade and pearl jewelry really cheap too. The necklaces I’ve had made of pearls are about $5-10. Needless to say, I’ve done a lot of Christmas shopping! I think we’re going to have to buy another suitcase to get it all home. We’ve already filled one of our large suitcases with porcelain that we bought in Nanchang, the porcelain capital of the world. Everything is so beautiful here, the artwork, the custom silk clothes, the jewelry, etc. At these prices it’s easy to shop without guilt! (I’m headed back to the pearl market tomorrow! Shhhh!) :-)

Kayli’s continuing to use the potty from time to time, that is, when Art and I can get her back to the room after her meals. Tonight when we left the restaurant it was pouring the rain, I mean just buckets! We had no umbrella and I needed to get back to the hotel to meet the man who was bringing my jade jewelry that I’d ordered. Art had to stay with the group to pay. So the ladies at the front door of the restaurant gave me a bag to put on my head and I had Kayli zipped up in my coat in her Baby Bjorn (she was not happy!). So I decided to make a run for it (no taxis around) and a local Chinese lady was walking past me and heard Kayli making a lot of noise and said she would walk us back to the hotel under her umbrella! What an angel! She sang to Kayli in Chinese to calm her down which worked! Kayli loved her singing and reached out for the lady to continue. It was so cute and I was so grateful that I didn’t get drenched! An angel sent from heaven. :-)

Tomorrow’s the U.S. Consulate appointment, the most important one of all….to get her visa to get her home. Art had to fill out paperwork for 2 hours on Friday to prepare for this appointment. Not to mention all that we had to do at home (updated home study, updated fingerprints, etc.) to prepare for this. Our coordinator is going to the consulate for us and taking all of the paperwork in our group. We pray for a smooth process!

Day 9, Sunday, November 26, 2006
Yesterday we traveled from Nanchang to Guangzhou. It was Kayli’s first flight and she did great. We had no issues at all. Let us hope we can say the same after the 14-hour flight home.

We arrived in the early afternoon, here at the White Swan Hotel on Shamian Island in the center of the city and sitting in the Pearl River. The hotel is amazing with large waterfalls, a 13-foot ship carved in detail from ONE piece of jade, and a 30-foot Christmas tree! It is subtropical climate with beautiful flowers and palm trees everywhere. This particular island is an interested mix of the past and the present. There are many Georgian and Victorian buildings erected by the British and French as their trading houses, banks, social clubs, and embassies back in the mid 1800’s. They are very proud buildings but now mostly run down and home to local Chinese businesses that feed off the tourists, and mostly the adoption parents. All offer free loaner strollers, luggage, children’s clothes, laundry services, etc. which makes our stay here very convenient and comfortable. There is an old French Catholic Church adjoining French Troop Barracks, etc. It is still a beautiful island as you can see in this picture and definitely makes the most of its modest 1.3 km length. The shops are great and we have gotten some very cute clothes for Kayli at very good prices.

Kayli and I slowly walked the length today while she slept. On the far end, the island has a great park with only locals playing. It is Sunday and all ages of people were out doing everything from Badminton to ballroom dance in this lovely tropical setting. Sunday is also the wedding day in China and I saw four couples making photos today.

We have eaten at Lucy’s Bar and Grill as well as the famous Cantonese restaurant, where you can also have lovely entrees like sand worms, water beetles or silk worms…MMMMM!

Speaking of good eats, we have both been a little sick, but nothing that Cipro can’t fix!

Last, but not least, we visited the local pearl and jade markets. Very interesting! You can negotiate the prices down at least 60% on everything, but it takes a long time to do it, but is still fun. It is very economical!

Kayli is doing great. She is starting her sign language and feeding herself. She is very easy-going and loves to laugh, play peek-a-boo, and “Ride a little horsy.” She is all we would have ever dreamed of, clever, fun loving, beautiful, and snuggly!!!

China Adoption Trip - Day 7

Day 7 (November 24th)

A couple of big things happened today.

The first one was the next big step in the process, getting Kayli’s Chinese passport, to allow us to complete the process with the American Consulate and to travel back to the US. And we were lucky, being the first ones in the Gov’t office today, because right after we left they had a system failure and sent all the other groups back to the hotel to wait until Monday.



Kayli also had several firsts today. She fed herself, sat up on here own from lying down, and did multiple rolls. She also starting doing her sign language for eat and milk. She is also babbling up a storm and loving to play!!!! She is laughing freely and making us all have a good time.


We did some more shopping (a ton of walking carrying Kayli), filled in the multiple US govt forms needed for the next step (2 hours!) and had our last dinner here in Nanchang (which was very good and cost $2.10 per adult including drinks!)

Side note: When running this morning, there were many people doing Tae Chi, as we have gotten used to, but also many people swimming across the river…..that is wider than the Mississippi, full of boats and trash, and it was 45 degrees out!!!!!!

It has been a very long day and the ladies are sleeping. I will now follow suit as we are off early to Guangzhou in the morning.

Thanksgiving in China

Thanksgiving in China

Yes, we did even get the hotel to find and bake us a turkey so we could celebrate, but that was about the only thing you would recognize in the buffet dinner, unless fried octopus or spiced eggplant makes your list of Thanksgiving favorites. It was still great to celebrate Thanksgiving with a bunch of other Americans here in China. Only thing missing is watching the Lions loose (we will be to bed before that).

On to the important stuff. It is amazing how much love and affection Kayli is already displaying. She reaches for us, hugs us, puts her face against ours and gently strokes our face and hands while babbling sweetly. She loves being held by us and is completely safe and relaxed already!


We are in Jiangxi Provence, where porcelain was first created over 500 years ago and it is where the best in the world is still made. At that time, the city was called something like Schwennu, and the Europeans pronounced it China, giving birth to the name of the country and the product at the same time. We visited the best shop in the city today and purchased a few great pieces, one of which is from the most famous artist whose pieces have been presented to world leaders as gifts. (They gave me photos of the presentations.) It is beautiful! Don’t know how I will get it home!

We also visited the farming communities and saw how “the other half (90%) lives.” WOW! They live in a row huts (together with their animals) with no windows, no heating, not plumbing, and very little electricity. They have open sewers and one toilet for the whole community. There is also a central pond where they wash their clothes, vegetables, and (when it is warm enough) themselves. They live on $250 per……year!

So we all have much more to be grateful for than we think!

We also had a great lunch with two other couples, who were very interesting. One couple are both professors from NYC and one a best selling author and the other couple is from NC and has a Senator’s cousin and a children’s book author. Cool folks!

It is now 9:30 PM and Kayli is FINALLY asleep after 2.5 hours of effort. All the kids seem wired tonight. She did get comfortable lying on her back without being held for the first time. Time for us to turn in as well.

Thanks for tuning in and have a great Thanksgiving back there in the States!

Day 6

Today it was foggy here again but we were able to at least see across the river at times. We went on a tour of a Chinese temple that has been rebuilt 28 times. It was torn down and rebuilt for each emporer. What a lot of work! They had a blue print so the building itself was the same but the murals and decorations changed for each emporer.

Kayli continues to use the potty well, and a diaper in between. We went to lunch and came back to the hotel (after the tour too) and she had a dry diaper. I thought for sure it would be wet, but when we put her on the potty she went. I think she holds it until we set her on the potty. No problems with constipation with her which is unlike some of our other unfortunate parents in our group. We're hoping this is motivation for Sawyer in his potty training (or lack there of!).

Tonight we fed her pumpkin in baby food mixed with rice cereal. Alex used to LOVE this when we lived in Germany but he’ll not even try it now! :) She ate most of it but I don’t think it was her favorite because half the time she would pucker her lips after we gave her a spoonful. It was so funny!

Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving. Our coordinator here told us they were going to have a special meal made for us in honor of our U.S. holiday. Turkey here is very uncommon and costs about $5/lb. Since it’s uncommon I’m not sure I’d trust them to prepare it the way we like! We'll see if we end up with duck! Ha ha!

There’s not a lot of American food here. Mostly Chinese food for all three meals of the day with a little variation from time to time but still not American food by any means. Okay, I know we’re in China so “do as the Romans”, right? Well, I’ve had about two servings of vegetables since we’ve been here. Pretty hard on a vegetarian! We can’t eat fresh fruits or vegetables in case they were washed in the water. There aren’t many cooked vegetables either. I think the only ones I can think of are sautéed pumpkin, fried sweet potatoes (so much for being on a diet!), and spicy green beans, oh yes, and sautéed chili peppers! Mmmm! My favorite….ha ha! At least my sinuses have been kept clear with all the spicey foods! I hear the food in Guangzhou is a little more accommodating to the Americans in our hotel so I’m looking forward to that.

Daddy and daughter lie asleep on the bed together once again….after a long crying session with teething and gas finally pooped her out….daddy too!

D ay 5 - A Day to Rest

Today we had no appointments. It was nice to just spend time with Kayli and get her on a real schedule....of some sort or another. It's definitely closer to that of what she had in the orphanage (or "baby home" as Alex and I like to call it).
We did walk to the local grocery store for a few things and took some photos of a couple of men hand-molding these metal things they sell in their shop and a photo of one of the side streets.

Other than that, since we didn't go anywhere or do anything real exciting I'll give you an update on our baby girl. She's eating very well. The table food she's eating is: steamed eggs (how to fix that is mystery to me!), fried rice with scrambled egg, green beans (that were spicey!), beef tenderloin (very tender small bites), some green leafy veggie we're not sure what it is, and her formula with rice cereal mixed in. What she hates: watermelon, pork dumplings (like what you see in won ton soup), and scrambled egg by itself. So she's eating a variety of foods and a good bit of them.

Yesterday she didn't drink much formula or water, come to find out (today) her formula needed rice cereal mixed in it to make it much thicker (she's been slurping that down like a champ today), so her diapers were pretty dry even after drinking a lot. So we figured she must've been dehydrated. Well, HOT NEWS, come to find out from another parent of a child from the same baby home, they were told to put their daughter (13 mos. old) on the potty after each meal for 5-10 minutes and make a certain ticking sound with your mouth and she'll go. Everyone I've talked to today who tried this has had much success with #1 and #2 so Art and I figured, why not? There is an element of screaming involved until they get used to the big potty because they're used to the small ones in the orphanage. First I must say she had a #2 this morning and she drank a lot this morning as well so we knew she'd have a wet diaper soon even though it was quite dry this morning after all night. So, after lunch we noticed her diaper was still dry (!) and she was real fussy for no reason so we decided to put her on the potty. We held her tight and hugged her the whole time she screamed. We waited for 10 minutes and then decided "time's up", well much to our surprise was #1 and #2 in the potty! With all the crying we didn't hear her go! How exciting! She was so excited too and I think felt relieved in more ways than one. After dinner (we went outside the hotel to eat) when we were getting up to leave she was real fussy and fidgety in the Baby Bjorn and I reminded Art we needed to get her back to the potty. We pulled off her diaper and there was a little poo (3rd for the day!) and we sat her on the potty and made the noise. Within a minute she pee'd! We were all so excited again and the smile on her face was again of relief and happiness. We'll keep up her potty routine after meals. I think this will help her to potty train much easier when it's time.

She's not crawling yet, as many her age here aren't, and we even met a couple at breakfast this morning (working with another agency) whose daughter is 2, smaller than Kayli, and not crawling yet either. She was in foster care but apparently didn't get as good of care as many who are. Another family in our group who's daughter is 1 week younger than Kayli was also in foster care and she's beginning to walk since they got her Sunday! Kayli's a little behind in her gross motor skills but is working on them every day, like feeding herself. She's making steady progress. She hates to be layed down on her back for any reason. Changing diapers is a real thrill! Bedtime is no piece of cake either. This will take some time to work through.

Tomorrow we tour a chinese temple that we can see from our window, you can see in one of the photos I posted yesterday. Thursday we tour the countryside. Friday we go to the markets to shop for the inexpensive items and also get her passport. Jiangxi province is known as the porcelain capitol of China so we'll be sure to contribute to the local economy tha way! I hope you're enjoying reading about our journey. If you'd like to send me an e-mail while I'm here to tell me your thoughts you can send it to the link on the side of this website. I hope it works as I've not tried to use it yet and can't see it on the internet while I'm in China. Thanks for letting us share this exciting journey with you!