Finally home...sweet home....

Hello Everyone!

Sooooo glad to be home. China was a great experience this time, but, one day too long for us, did I mention we were out of clothes by the end.! :)

We got up early on Thursday, to meet all the families in the lobby of the hotel by 6 am, so we could all get to the airport. The two other families were flying together through to Narita (Japan) then on to their homes from there.

Max did great on our short flight to Hong Kong to meet our connection. We took a local Hong Kong airline, Dragon Air (hi Long!) and it was almost a brand new plane. Again, all sorts of stares, and pats on Max's cheeks and head, a common form of hello to kids in China. The pilot had a British accent, how cool right...well it was Hong Kong.

We had a short layover in Hong Kong, and boarded our big bird, a 747 (the kind that has an upstairs) with a nonstop flight to San Francisco. We settled into our seats, Max would not leave John's lap. He had a "lap seat" since he is under two years old, and we had our arsenal of crackers, snacks, toys etc. for him. Though they confiscated our bubbles (thought I had just 2 oz in the bottle). Oh well. 11 hours 45 minutes of fun with a toddler on your lap, ahem, John's lap. Needless to say, Max slept for about 3/4 of the ride home to San Francisco. One of the male flight attendants, came by, and offered to take Max on a spin around the plan for a bit so we could get some rest. I seriously wanted to offer him money. He began speaking Chinese to Max which calmed him immediately.

Max was passed around to some of the 12 attendants on the plane, and when I woke from a snooze, he was sleeping back on John's lap. How sweet, and wonderful. (kudos United Airlines!)

I got a bit teary again (one of many teary bouts, since I'm exhausted and overemotional) telling Max as we landed that he is now an American citizen. One of the flight attendants came over to us and spoke to Max and said how lucky he is to begin his new life here in the U.S., and he is such a lucky boy.

We deplaned in San Fran, to get in line for customs. Ahhh, the United States. Hi, armed Homeland Security guys, I missed you. Hello, English everywhere...we went right to an open line, and had our passports stamped (John and myself) Max's not so easy, we promptly were told to take him and his little red passport and the magic secret brown envelope (not to be opened until now, remember?) to lane 4. As we got closer to lane 4, we noticed two exhausted other couples with Chinese kids hanging off them in bjorns. Hmm, didn't see them on our flight, but again it was a big plane.

I gave each of their kids suckers, after hearing they had another 5 hours ahead of them to get to the east coast. We, thankfully, just had a short hop up to Portland. We all must have been a sight. Smeared crackers on our shoulders, from little mouths wiping them (parents you know it) sweaty, red-eyes, yet big grins to be almost home, almost giddy with laughter.

We all cracked out the brown envelopes and surrendered them to the customs agent. Stamp, type, stamp, type and done. Were passed. 2 years of paperwork and waiting, now 24 hours of flying, and done. Hooray. Our paperwork trail, kinda makes me think about the "lost ark" in the first Indiana Jones movie, at the end where the ark is put in storage among many other relics, after chasing it for so long. That's where all of our paperwork may be. Maybe someday it will all be electronic.

Next up, getting our bags, and rechecking them, for our short domestic flight to Portland. Ah, Portland. Who doesn't like to come home to sweet PDX. The green and blue patterned carpet, skylights, and welcoming faces of fellow casual Oregonians.

My mom and Juliette met us at our house, instead of the airport, so we could just jet home, quickly, knowing like last time, we were exhausted. We strapped Max into his carseat, his first carseat ride ever, and he couldn't figure out why he was being restrained. He kept putting his hands out for us to pick him up, but, of course we couldn't. We got back to Salem in no time, and waiting for us outside, was my mom and Juliette. She ran up to us, and yelled, "mommy, daddy...where's baby Max?" Needless to say, we all embraced and introduced her to her little brother. Note, we think Juliette grew about 2" while we were gone, it was the V8 juice, Smitty.

As we walked in balloons welcomed us, and special trinkets for Max left creatively around the house. (we're on to you Krystal) So, fun to find.

Currently, Juliette loves being a big sister, as she wants to help with everything. Awesome. We are thrilled that she is handling everything ok at this point. Max too, is enjoying exploring. Our house has a lot of stairs, as many of you know, so, we pulled out all of our baby-gates again, to keep everyone where they are supposed to be. It's hard to remember how active toddlers are. He definitely loves his sister. He mimics whatever she does, and just stares at her, for her reaction, which is always a smile.

So, here we are. Home. Unpacked. Clean laundry (hooray) and trying to figure out our new life with 2 kids. Juliette is handling her new status as "big sister" nicely. She wears her pink "big sister" Chinese t-shirt every day so far. (see photo) It's a hard adjustment for everyone, Max waking up at night, making him comfortable, and keeping Juliette included, she is an amazing helper as well. We will just take one day at a time, as we ease into a new routine.

Hello comfy bed, I missed you.

Thank you all again for following along in our journal/blog.

With Love,
The Lloyds

Happy....

Mani Pedi Night......

Like my BIB???

Shopping!!

Shopping!!!

Almost HOME!!!

Ni Hao Everyone,

Almost home! This is the final stretch of our whirlwind adventure, and boy are we ready to come home.

Max is getting along just fine, with every day he gets more used to us, our sounds, and his comfortability with us. We found the " kiddyland" here at the hotel to be a great resource to let him run around and play. It's hard to be couped up in a hotel room. Max loves the slide, and like other typical kids this age, finds it hard to share or wait his turn, when Sean is also around in the playroom. Although we rented a stroller from the hotel, he loves to cruise around in it, which sometimes makes him fall asleep (hooray)

Max loves his bath with each new day. With an energetic toddler sitting on dirty floors, all around, picking up things, it's bath night every night.

We think in the short time Max has been hearing english, that he is understanding better, what we are saying. Because I may say, "do you want to get down and walk" and he shakes his head "no". Pretty amazing. Although his pouting face is quite noteworthy (see photo)

John is getting excited to shave his "reverse mullet" haircut. He talks about it quite often, Sunday he says. Sunday is the day.. It's cute, a little tuffet of hair, common for the boys here. I want to spike it up with gel...it's so cute.

We are running low on clothes, as we presumed we would do laundry here. The hotel is extremely expensive, so I thought, I can just wash some stuff in the tub, with some laundry soap. Yep, we're Beverly Hillbillies all of the sudden (cue the banjo music), as we have all of our clothes hanging off the vents...needless to say none dried since it is soooo humid here. Our guide found us an outside laundry service for a very reasonable price. They picked it up, and brought it back clean, and packaged so nicely. How cool.

Sunday morning, the breakfast room was filled to the gills with Americans. It was a Princeton class of '58 trip to China, so many Americans in our way to the Western-style buffet. They asked me if I do business here, my first thought was to have a fake accent, sometimes I like to do that, but, I knew the Princeton peeps probably outsmarted me. I told some of them who were curious about Max, and many came over to say hello and congrats.

We were running low on water (again) so we decided to take a taxi to the grocery store. (note the taxi ride was just $2, crazy right?) The grocery store, was a multi-level monolith type of store, I loved it immediately. The escalators carried shopping carts up to the different levels on a slanted conveyor belt, similar to some IKEA stores if you have seen one like that. If not, it's kinda un-nerving, thinking the cart will fall backwards on the flat escalator belt. But, low and behold it didn't. We needed more pull-ups for Max, so I pointed to his that he had on, and they directed us, also deodorant (did I mention it was humid) and pointed to my underarms, and they directed us. Easy right? So fun, trying to get along in a non-english speaking country. It's really a confidence booster to make yourself understood, get somewhere by taxi, and get back.

The best part was, the concierge, gave us a little sheet that says "please take me to" and he checked the box: "grocery store's name". We just showed the driver, let's not lose that paper, seriously, because it had a picture of the hotel for our way back.

Tuesday, we spent the morning with the other families on the Shaman Island again, collecting some souvenirs. We also took the traditional "red couch" photo there at the White Swan Hotel, a tradition for adoptive families, bringing good luck. The vendors there, were very eager to have us shop at their stores. It was so hot and humid that we only shopped for a bit, and headed for the closest air conditioned place, Lucy's restaurant again, for some American food.

I know it may seem like we are eating a lot of American food, but, really...well we are. We do not have a guide at all times, like on our last trip to China (we miss you Kathy!), so it makes it more difficult to know what to order and where to go. Something that would have been nice on this trip, but, oh well, we're all doing our best to be adventurous, but, not too much just in case. We're just sticking to the "please take me here" list of places.

Tuesday afternoon was our official U.S. Consulate appt. Elsie, our guide came and got us at our designated time, by little bus, and we headed over there. As we got closer, which was located in the main downtown of Guangzhou, large skyscrapers, etc, lined the streets. The consulate is located on the 4th floor of a large office building. We pulled up in front, and started noticing, many other American families with adoptive kids of all ages, waiting to go in. Some, we recognized from the medical exam office earlier this week.

Just like any other government-esque type of building with security, we showed our passports, went through metal detectors (they took my camera, no photos inside) and we took our seats in a sea of about 50 chairs. Our guide told us we had to wait for our names to be called and sign a paper. Then after EVERYONE (about 50 families) signed their sheets, we ALL took an oath together, by raising our right hands, and repeating that "we will something, something..." I would know, but, I have a rambunctious toddler running around, so I'm sure John said what needed to be said. I still got a bit teary-eyed as we all congratulated each other, this was one of the final hurdles in this gold medal race to the finish.

In 2009, 25,000 immigrants from China were allowed into the U.S. via this process, 3,000 of them were Chinese adoptive babies, and 57% of those kids were special needs, a record number. Hooray.

The last piece Max needs to get into the U.S. is his passport back with that precious VISA stamped inside. Our guide Elsie will pick them up for us tomorrow, along with a plain brown envelope, that is ONLY to be opened by the customs clerk. I vaguely remember this part with Juliette, what's in the brown envelope I will never know, maybe it's the secret recipe for steamed egg. Really, it is proof that he is naturalized as an American citizen.

Our last day here has finally arrived!

We all returned with tired kiddos, and retreated back to our rooms. John and I feasted on what is left from our "red" suitcase fillled with our Costco stash, hoping to lighten our load, as we fill it back up with souvenirs, trying to stay below the 23 kg weight limit for each of our suitcases. Note to anyone who will listen, can we all get on the same page with measurments and money, it's way to confusing for me. Multiply this by 2.2 or by 7 ahhh, seriously? (Note: feeling blue about eating Mc.Donalds? Weigh yourself on a kg scale, it makes you feel better)

One last trip to the awesome super-sized grocery store, to get some items, Just me, Max, and the Williams family via taxi. I still am amazed when the cashier said that will be 130, and my heart races for a bit, but, then I realize it's only about $17. I bought Max some shoes, turns out his were two different sizes (on each foot) from the orphanage, oh well. They have the cutest shoes here! Especially the "squeaky" kind, they have air pockets in them with plugs that when the kids walk they squeek. Cute, as ever.

One stop at the coveted Starbucks (just had to see if it was the same) since we were hot, we decided to get green tea frapps. Awesome idea, but, do they use ice to make it? I do the impossible. I ask for mine to be made without ice (just in case). Kudos to Starbucks for good customer service, it's done, and tastes better than any other Starbucks I've ever had.

We visited the local park today on a "sauna-walk." That's what it felt like. The three families, 3 strollers, 3 piles of sweat we were, I think I almost fainted a bit when I saw people jogging...seriously, in this humidity, no way. We stoped briefly to watch a few unique things happening in this very busy park. Not only the crazy joggers, but, there was public exercise equipment that was filled with people. It looked like people from all ages were using it. Note to self, no one here has a weight problem. Hmm.

One man, stopped Carl, from our group and asked him to play ping-pong with him. Of course Carl obliged (John wanted to, I could tell, he kept moving closer to the match) It was so cool, such a nice gesture. A group of people gathered to watch, did I mention Carl is about 6'5")

Max was extremely overheated, dressed only in his tee, shorts and no socks or shoes, we couldn't get back to the frigidly-cool hotel fast enough. Still looking around at the other kids, at the park, still dressed in layers....ahhh.

Our guide Elsie, brought us the sought after VISA stamped in his little red passport, all ready to go. She stayed and talked for a bit which was nice. I asked her to ask Max if he didn't feel well, he didn't say anything, which appears that he is just fine. She talked to him a bit in Mandarin, and he responded to her, but seemed a bit confused since he was hearing english for the past 2 weeks, although I'm guessing we sound kinda like "snoopy" along with some "no's"

We returned the fabulous rented stroller to the consierge in the lobby and saw there was another wedding going on here. It must be a lucky day, because it's a Wednesday night, not common for weddings. How appropriate, a new beginning for them, a new beginning for us. As Max doses off in my arms, looking up at me to make sure I am still there, I realize wow, this was an amazing trip for all of us.

Juliette get ready to finally meet your little brother, America here we come.


Dorothy was right.


With Love,
Beth, John & Maximus Pan Bin Tiberius* Lloyd

p.s. Juilette is having a blast with Krystal this week (see her mani/pedi photo). We talk to them via Skype daily, we realize it's hard for her to understand, but, it's nice now to say, see you in 1 day! We miss her a ton!

*only when visitng mommy at work, or at a Star Trek convention

Happy Family!!!

Love my Jammies!!!

Bubbles...

Day 6: Bye Hohhot, Day 7-8, Guangzhou Part 1

Hello Everyone!

We are settling in quite nicely to Guangzhou, for the last half our trip! Hooray!

We celebrated my birthday before leaving Hohhot, cake was ordered (I celebrated both in China and Friday on in the U.S., you know me, I love birthdays) and we all gathered in our room for a cake feast. The cake said, "Happy Birthday Beth" written in english, how sweet. After cake, (who doesn't like cake before dinner?) we headed to a traditional Mongolia
jn Hot Pot restaurant for dinner. After getting us all settled at a table, Jessie ordered for us. Centered around the lazy-susan in the middle of the table was a bowl of broth, beginning to boil. In the broth were medicinal herbs, spices, etc, Jessie said to make us healthy, good complextion, eyesight, and pretty, (sign me up) The waiter brought over metal racks and sat them near our table. Then plates of raw food came over, ready to throw into the pot, in the right order, mind you. Plates of lettuce, bean sprouts, handmade noodles, pork, celantro, carrots, onion, mushrooms (some crazy ones) We then put each plate one by one into the boiling pot, first the meat, then mushrooms, then noodles, then greens. Once the items were cooked, you grabbed what you wanted with your chopsticks, and put on your own plate. It was very fresh and healthy tasting, quite good.

Before leaving Hohhot, we purchased some souvenirs for Max from his home province. Jessie took us back to the mall area where the grocery store is located and there was a sweet little store packed with Inner Mongolian treasures. The store owner knew that we have adopted, and said "entire store, half off" Awesome, good news. The Williams family and me went to town shopping (John stayed back with sleeping Max) We bought the kiddos traditional Inner Mongolian outfits and hats. Along with some traditional yurt replicas, and other little things, including a little camel who sings a sweet Mongolian song, Max loved it!

We there returned to our room, packed all of our stuff, and filled Max's belly with a bowl of steamed egg for lunch, one of his favorites, just like Juliette. John entertained Max with some bubbles while I packed. Maria went with Jessie for one last Hohhot run to the grocery store, and purchased both kids, some candied Hawthorne Fruit! Oh my, so good! It was on a stick, and had candied bananas in between each berry, all wrapped in eatable rice paper. We all loved it.

Off to the airport we went, stopping first at a monument built for the Olympics in '08, everyone had to go to the restroom so we had to use a government building next door. The only issue was there were no "western style" toilets there. Yikes.

Max knew what to do, and kinda had to show me. I heart you, western style toilets.

At the airport, we stood in line for quite some time. Our guide helped us check in, but, unfortunately there was an issue with the Williams ticketing, they had no seats on our flight to Guangzhou! So, Jessie arranged quickly for them to get on a flight to Shanghai, then to Guangzhou. Darn, we wanted to all be together, especially since this was the boys first flight, and it was a local airline, no other westerners. Needless to say, we said our goodbyes, and waited for our flight, which was delayed. The flight was packed! Arg! And made a stop in BaoTao first (ony a 20 minute flight there) but, the flight to Guangzhou from there was 3 hours! Yuck! Crammed, loud talking, and turbulence. The good news is that Max did great on his first flight, and slep the whole way, on my lap. There's something comforting about American pilots during turbulence. They come on the mic and say "he folks, it's going to be a bit bumpy, just sit back and relax..." The pilots on this airline did not speak, only the flight attendants, who said in english, "we are experience turbulence, fasten seatbelts" the comforting tone, a bit lost in translation...but, we made it, and landed in Guangzhou, so ready to get here already.

Our new guide, Elsie was waiting there for us, and helped us into our little van. Humidity, hit us like a ton of bricks, upon stepping outside. We forgot shorts, is all I was thinking. The weather here is like Florida in the summer, sticky hot. We expected to see the Williams there to, but, learned their flight from Shanghai was cancelled due to mechanical problems, and they had to spend the night there! Ahh, I felt so bad for them. O'Ree speaks a bit of Mandarin, so I know they will be just fine.

Elsie gave us our itinerary for this leg of the trip, and wisked us of to our new home for a week, The China Hotel. What a sight for sore eyes, a 5-star hotel, with a Starbucks inside. No more needs to be said. The Lloyds are happy.

Our guide asked us to be in the lobby at 11 am to take the kids to the medical exam, on the Shaman Island, where we stayed last time while here in the famous White Swan Hotel. The breakfast included in our hotel is amazing, more western food as far as the eye can see, as well as Chinse and Japanese food. There, we met the other family that we met in Beijing, Jennifer, Carl, and their new daugher Ru Ru (Nicole). We had breakfast together, and the kids go to know each other. Ru Ru, is seet, tiny, delicate, and timid. Compared to the boys she eats like a princess, very dainty like, as opposed to food on the floor, high-chair, and smeared in hair. Ahh, boys.

The outing to the med center was quick, and the kids did great. Little rooms checking temperature, hearing, weight, etc. Nothing to extreme, and Max cooperated nicely. He is 23 pounds, and is about 2.5 feet tall. The kids had their photo taken for their VISA, all the kids photos came out with crying faces, they didn't like that, but, the photos are funny.

Off to lunch at "Lucys" and American food restaurant in the island, we ate with the Knudson's (Jennifer and Carl) and looked around briefly.

Back on the bus, hello air-conditioning, and back to our hotel. The Knudsons asked us to go to dinner with them, and we looked at our little map from the guide on local restaurants. We decided on Portugese food (why not) and off we went by foot. They seated us in one of the many private rooms, and John and Carl ordered. The menu was about 2 feet tall, with large photos of all the items. Portugese it was not, Chinese food in disguise. Needless to say, they had steamed egg for the kids, and we figured out a few good dishes to have. The restaurant was packed, an obvious hot spot by locals.

Back to our rooms, note, we upgraded just like in Hohhot to a suite, the hotel rooms (even 5-star) are postage stamp-closterphobic size. Room for little feet to run around.

Max and I explored the hotel (yes, Starbucks, at twice the price no less) while John worked on business back to Oregon. Turns out there is a very upscale mall type of area, that we strolled through. I love the store names, they are just simply "dream" for a bedding store, and "fresh" for a market, and "success" for a business type of area. Very smart, I liked the simplicity of it. There is a pool and "kiddy-land" area for the kids to play, hooray!

We finally met back up with the Williams the next morning for breakfast and heard about their Shanghai adventure. Wow! The airline put them up in a hotel, and helped them get back to the airport the next day for their flight. We again, ordered pizza (figuring we sweat off a few pounds with the weather) with the other families. Papa Johns has made it to China, how funny huh?

Needless to say, we are ready to come home, just a few short days left and we fly home! Tomorrow is our official consulate appointment, where we take an offical oath on Max's behalf to get him his VISA.

Stay tuned for more!

Lots of Love,

Beth, John & Max

Princess Juliette Update: She had a blast this past weekend at Grandma Barb's, they made me a cupcake with a candle, and sang happy birthday over Skype! How sweet!

Bjorn Boy!!!

Sleepy Boy.......ZZZZZZZ's

Museum Crew

Rice & Congee

Proud Daddy

O'Ree & Sweets

Day 4 and 5

Hello Everyone,

We're still in Hohhot, waiting patiently for our paperwork to be processed. It's Max's Chinese passport that we are waiting for to be done on Friday, then we will fly out to Guanghou. Then once in Guangzhou we can apply for his U.S. Visa at the consulate there. Hooray! Closer to coming home!

Our first breakfast with Max at the hotel restaurant was fun. We were told he likes plain rice congee (google it), he devoured it and tipped the bowl for every last drop. Little did he know this was his first buffet. Yep, all you can eat, needless to say we fed him as much congee as he could handle. He tried many things, our guide ate breakfast with us to help show us his favorites. We love you Jessie!

We spent Tuesday morning, signing more paperwork in the lobby of the hotel, with the kids along. We were happy we didn't have to go to far. Different little casual stations were set up for us to sit at, civil affairs, notary etc. We noticed another family walk in with a beautiful chinese daughter who looked about Juliette's age, and a little boy about Max & Sean's (O'ree & Maria's son's) age. They immediately came over to us, and introduced themselves. The have the 3rd "Pan" baby! And they are from Holland! How cool. So, to recap Max is Pan Bin, Sean is Pan Hang, and this little boy is Pan Ywan, and they named him Sam. They brought with them their daughter who they adopted 4 years ago from the Guangdong province, where Guangzhou is. What a trip for them. We won't see them again in Guangzhou as Holland's consulate is in Beijing, ours is in Guangzhou.

We then retreated back to our respective rooms, for some down time, before our trip out to get more water and supplies. Most chinese people go to the store every day, unlike us who go once a week. While at the store, we stock up on Hawthorne Berry (google it) fruit rolls. This is something that we were told our boys LOVE. The are little rolls of dried fruit, individually wrapped. Perfect healthy snack. Walking down the street we see many children eating candied Hawthorne Berries on sticks. I can't wait to try one. I love anything candied, or on a stick for that matter.

Needless to say more stares at the grocery store again, people are making a wide berth for us, moving carts out of our way, stopping mid-conversation, staring almost owl-like at us, I haven't experienced anything like this before. My chinese consists of "thank you" and "hello", and so that only goes so far, but, I enjoy saying hello in english, because it puts a big smile on their faces to use their english to say hello back. I can tell they are tickled to see us, and speak to us, even if it is just "hello"

We also stopped at a pharmacy. Chinese pharmacies are not the same as ours. Max has a little congestion, so I asked if we could get him some decongestant. Jessie told us they sell this at pharmacies, not the grocery store. Upon walking into the pharmacy the scent of eastern medicinal herbs overtook us. The pharmacists sat waiting for us to ask what we needed, and then directed us to the right box. Walls, and shelves of little boxes filled the store. Everything is over-the-counter. Herbal and naturapathic remedies are first and foremost used here, rarely are Rx's given unless you go to the hospital our guide told us. How refreshing indeed. (p.s. the box was only 18 RMB, less than $3, amazing right?)

Wednesday, our guide has made plans for us to go to the big, new local museum. We get the babies ready, bundle them up. Sidenote, grandmotherly types of people may come up to us if we don't bundle the babies. They will pull on their clothes, and shout for us to bundle them, even if they are overheated. We brought extra layers, I don't want shouting. We arrive at this museum, which is surreal looking in architecture, juxtaposed with the older buildings, storefronts, of the town. This monster of a museum is all metal, glass, and is right out of an Architectural Digest magazine. We find that we have a personal tour of certain floors of the museum from a man who speaks relatively good english. The floors we are shown consist of Palaeontology & Inner Mongolian culture and history. It was interesting, and nicely displayed. The kids loved the dinosaurs, because when the tour guide hit a remote they came to life, sounds, light show, fun stuff.

I couldn't help but hear a gaggle of giggles behind our small little group. I asked Jessie why these girls were following us so closely. She told me that they want to take their picture with me. HOLD ON. Me? Really? I dropped everything and tried to find my best angle. (chin down of course, hi holly!) I ate this up, spoke some english to them (they were 14) which made them giggle more, and showed them photos of Juliette. I didn't just get to have all the fun, our group after finishing the tour, sat down with the kiddos in the main foyer, to give them snacks and drinks. This caused quite a stir. We decided that we were more of an exhibit sitting there, perfect setting right? Lots of stares, Jessie was busy translating the questions people had for us. Mostly, why do we have chinese babies, where are we from, etc. One little boy ran up and I think he said all the english words he knew in one big sentence, and then ran away. It was so cute.

We moved on, back to our little van, awaiting to take us back to our hotel, for lunch, and rest. Maria had the idea to stop for McDonald's for lunch today. We all caved, and gave in to our need for comfort food. John said, "I'll try to get you something healthy" how sweet, right? Jessie, John and Maria came back with what appeared to be McDonald's but with a Chinese twist. Thank heaven the fries tasted the same, we wouldn't want Max's McD's fry debut, to be anything less than perfect.

So off we go again for another venture out to the grocery store. It's just refreshing to be outside (which is unseasonably warmer here) and get out of our hotel rooms.

More to come soon!

Beth, John & Max

Exciting Max Fact #1: He's almost potty-trained. What? 20 months old? In orphanage settings, we are told that the nannies do this because they don't have time to keep changing the babies, and/or the resources of diapers. So, Max, let's us know with body language that he needs to go. We put him on the potty, and he does. He is still in a diaper just in case, but isn't that amazing?

Noodles......GOOD STUFF!!!

Max is just so CUTE!!!

Yummy......

Daddy Loves Max

Day 3.....Meet Max

Greetings Everyone!

Today was a great day. A day different than most. We met our son today. Max Pan Bin Lloyd, known here as "Bin Bin"

Cute, darling smile, energetic, loves his new toys and likes to throw them, silly, and so far a good sleeper. (said while trying to type quitely)

We prepared to meet Max at noon today. The kiddos left Baotou headed here this morning, with their two nannies, and Miss. Xue the orphanage coordinator.

After a very large buffet breakfast in our hotel lobby, which was deserted, we filled our bellies thinking this may be our big meal of the day. Lots of western comfort food, and lots of items we weren't sure about, left to the imagination. We then proceeded to the workout room here. Curiously, again deserted, very nice and new, and untouched. Fine by us.

We made another venture out to the grocery store, this time by ourselves (along with the Williams family) to get more precious water, and look around a bit more in the store. Still lots of stares did not deter us from finding what we needed, and a bit more. The streets were a bit less crowded due to being a work day, which was nice, still lots of random fireworks happening spontanously. Costco sized boxes of them, let off all at once. Kinda Roman Candle looking (John being a pyro guy was thrilled to watch)

We relieved to get back to our warm hotel and get all of our items back in order before the big meeting time. We had to prepare our gifts (customary to give notaries, civil afairs officers, etc. for this process)

High noon. A phone call from Jessie to meet in the lobby, the boys will be here in 15 mintues. (kinda dramatic writing huh?)

We make our way, nervous, anxious, excited, and a bit sweaty (me only) A gentle reminder from Jessie to smile when we see the kids, not cry, just smiles everyone, very Fantasy Island. We don't want to upset the kids.

The little white bus pulls, up, "there they are" we exclaimed! And sure enough, Max was here. Just like that. 2 years waiting, 12 hrs on the plane, and he was here.

A wedding was happening also in the hotel (one of many symbolic "lucky" days in the chinese culture) and the photographers followed us. They don't see stuff like this go on too much our guide told us.

Needless to say, we cozied into some lobby comfy couches to snuggle up with Max. Introducing ourselves as Mommy and Daddy, he didn't cry, just huge eyes, checking us out. Just like 4 years ago, we pulled out the magic "tootsie roll lollipop" And he was in heaven.

Max was layered in about 3 layers of clothes. He looked like a little buddha. A buddha eating a sucker. He was checking us out, and was almost asleep. This was the kids nap time.

Then more of the paperwork started, swiftly moved along by Jessie and Miss Xue. He had his passport photo taken, our family photo for the documents, and our fingerprints in red ink across our signatures. Miss Xue brought all of the items we sent Max in our two care packages. Including the disposable camera we asked to take photos of the orphanage, and the blanked my mom made for him (hi mom!) She also had some progress reports, his schdules, and updates and notes from the nannies. Jessie will be translating them for us soon.

We headed back to our room, after about an hour, said our good byes to Miss Xue (the nannies swiftly left before we could say goodbye so the babies wouldn't get upset) How sad we couldn't thank them personally.

Max is filled with wonder, upon seeing the toys we brought, blocks, cars, musical toys, etc. He was throwing them around, showing us them, and checking out the room. And, very hungry as well. He scarfed down a giant bowl of noodles, handfuls of cheerios and goldfish crackers, and water.

Jessie ran to the market for us to get formula (he has some before bed) diapers, etc. Our room just shrunk by half, tiny room, lots of stuff, and a toddler.

After playing a bit, bonding, we walked down to the Williams room to see how it was going with Sean. Same scenario. Toys, snacks, happy kids.

More paperwork from Jessie, in preparation for tomorrow (more civil affairs stuff) and we could see that ever-familiar doze in those big eyes.

We ordered a pizza (for us, sorry Max, not yet), and watched some t.v. They told us Max likes tv. Which is kinda funny to me, so we all watched a HBO movie, and Max was dancing to the music, with his hands, he likes music.

Time for bed, his eyes were getting heavy, slowly closing, trying to put him in the crib ( a no-go) he woke back up crying. OK, option 2, fall asleep next to us, and put him in. Done. that worked.

And so it is, our family is now complete.

Thank you all for the kind emails, we love them!

More to come soon!

Love,

Beth, John and Max

Update on Princess Juliette: having a great time with Krystal! Going to parks, swim lessons, drinking V8 splash, her new favorite drink we're told, and just having a good time. We spoke/saw to them on Skype today, it was so great. Thank you Krystal!

p.s. The lovely and talented Krystal "Smitty" Smith has updated our blog for us! Awesome, thank you Smitty!

Day 2

Day 2.......

Hello Everyone!

I'm going to write these emails back as my online journal, if you care to follow along please do so, since our blog is officially blocked here in China. Did you know Google is also blocked! arg!

Well, we met our other travel mates yesterday in Beijing at the hotel. They spent the day touring as we did the last time we were here. O'Ree & Maria are from Troutdale, Oregon, and their son to be is also at Max's same orphanage in BaoTou. Jennifer & Carl, are from Washington, D.C., and their daughter is in the Hunan Province. We will meet up with them in Guangzhou, as we do our U.S. Consulate stuff there.

Our Beijing 2nd guide Cindy, helped us convert some of our money at the hotel, due to where we are going they do not covert over a certain amount. Credit cards are rarely used here, cash for everything! Cindy arranged for us to have a box breakfast as our flight for Hohhot leaves early.

We left Beijing without a hitch, I was concerned with our massive cart-rolling 4 american sized suitcases being overweight for a small domestic flight. But, sweet Cindy negotiated zero extra charges for us! Horray!

As we said goodbye and thanks to Cindy, and the family going to Hunan, us Hohhot peeps found our gate for China South Airlines. Since it was only an hour flight, we wondered if it was going to be a small plane, but it wasn't. However, they took us by bus right on the tarmac to board the plane. On the plane which was only 1/4 full (being 737) they gave us mongolian sweet meat sandwiches...kinda yummy.

We landed in the brand new Hohhot nice airport, and were pleased to see our guide Jessie (yes Jean, she's the same Jessie who guided your family while here!) with a big welcoming smile. Jessie arrived here in Hohhot earlier to prepare things, start paperwork, talk to the orphanage etc.

BURRR! It's -7 degrees C, about 10-12 degrees F. I'm glad we packed our scarves, gloves, etc. The air is way less smoggy than Beijing, and it seems cleaner here.

Hohhot is the capitol city of Inner Mongolia. Max's orphanage is in BaoTou, about 2 hrs from here. Hohhot means the "green city" I don't think for reasons in which "green" has become popular in the u.s. (sorry Heather) It is the green grass, pastures, etc, that give it's name. Curiosly, Inner Mongolia is 1 of 3 places in China that have their own language. Many of the signage is written in both the Mongolian characters and Chinese characters. It is distinctivly different looking, very slim and tall characters. The famous food here is "Mongolian Hot Pot" and no, I'm guessing it's not similar to the one on Commercial Street in south salem.

We arrived at our hotel via private little bus again. They hire these cute little white busses with lace doilies on the seat backs for groups. Kinda VIP like, or so I think. (not really) Our hotel is a Holiday Inn, the best one in town. Hooray! Wireless internet in the rooms, Western food, and a gym, were set. Jessie checked us in, and we had some rest time. Which translated to me, organizing all of our junk in a small room. As were heard a ring at the door (yes the rooms have doorbells) in came the housekeeping with a crib and tiny bathtub for Max! :)

We all rested a bit, and met in the lobby to walk to our lunch destination. Jessie let us know not to be alarmed by people staring at us, as the people here are very curious and do not see many Westerners on a regular basis. Infact after our little outing to lunch/shopping yesterday we did not see one other westerner. The city is very crowed as it is their Spring Festival right now coming off the Chinese New Year last week. Thus the spontaneous fireworks all over on the streets, many red lanterns decorating the roadways, so beautiful.

Our lunch place was very popular, which was a noodle type of restaurant. We grabbed a table (Maria and myself) while the boys ordered with Jessie. My soup looked a lot like Vietamese Pho (hello Tim and Long) it was really good! Plus I was freezing, and warm soup hits the spot.

We decided to go shopping (hooray) we were told that Max likes cars, and Sean (Maria & O'Ree's son) likes building blocks. We brought some toys, but, we just got some cute little matchbox types of cars for him. Then we went to the grocery store. One of my favorite types of places because of all of the awesome eye-candy from a graphical packaging nature. Bright colors, bins of who knows what, totally interesting.

We stocked up on water (still trying hard not to brush teeth from the tap), beer (for John) and I found some Coke Zero (tee hee) and we purchased Max some of the crackers we were told he likes. Just for reference we purchased 4 huge 2 liter bottles of h20, beer, crackers, and my soda, for about $5. Our soup at the restaurant for two people was $2. The RMB (yuan) is about 7 to our $1. And their money is so colorful, and fake looking (not fake in a bad way, just the feel of the paper)

So, we headed back and I realized my camera was not in my pocket. Silly me for keeping it there, as I was taking pictures of the cool things in the store. My purse is glued across my chest, but, it seems that I it may have dropped out or I may have been pick-pocketed. I've never lost or had anything stolen. Drat! Yep. That stinks. So, Jessie and I went to the security office, and they looked at the tapes. No sign of the camera. The good news is that it wasn't our money, or passports, etc, and Jessie helped me get a new camera before our big day. Eek!

So, with the day behind us, it's time for some shut-eye, hard to do when you are on salem time, but, we are exhausted. John fell asleep as his head hit the pillow. :)

Our big day to meet Max is Monday (today)!

More to come soon!

:)

Beth & John

Beijing[kidda smoggy]

John & ALL of Beth's luggage. Just kidding.....

We Made it!!!

Hello - I [Krystal] will be posting to the blog since it is blocked in China=( Want to keep everyone updated on how things are going on Max's big adventure. See below for 1st day's post.....more posts to follow.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hello Family,

We made it to Beijing! It's 1:05 am in the morning Oregon time, but, only 5 pm in Beijing...

Good flight, it didn't seem as long as past flights probably because it was direct.

We are waiting for our local guide to return to the hotel with the other family who spent the day sightseeing, so we can exchange money and figure out our plan for the morning flight to Hohhot.

So, we're really tired right now, and will be going to bed soon.

Bad news is that our blog is blocked in China :( Yikes!

So, I will just be updating via emails, unless it's not blocked in other cities we go to.

Stay tuned.

Love,

b&j

Here we go!

The packing frenzy has begun! Well acutally it started weeks ago, making piles, compiling lists, sorting, buying...and now it's time to put it all in 3 suitcases! Yikes! I'm trying to remember whatever we don't pack we can purchase there...except for my precious gumdrops!

We're off tomorrow (Friday) for a 6 am flight to San Francisco, then a direct flight from there to Beijing! We are scheduled to arrive in Beijing at 4 pm on Saturday the 20th.

We will then spend the night in Beiing, and fly to Hohhot to meet Max, which will be on Monday, Feb 22. :)

The lovely Krystal will be staying at our house, starting tonight, with Princess Juliette! My super-mom will be helping on the weekends. Thanks Krystal and Mom!!!

Thanks for following along on our trip, and for all of your well wishes! Talk to you next from Beijing!