Today was another amazing day with Brooklyn, and Edward and I are wiped out. I would say Brooklyn is almost completely attached to the both of us, and the heat rashes and mosquito bites on her face have about totally disappeared. We are still working on her building trust with Edward, but it's only been two days with her and we are over the moon with the progress.

Yesterday and the day before she would not allow me to put her down, but last night I was able to put her down on the floor while we played with her (me sitting on the bed, Edward on the floor) and she was okay for about 10 minutes like that before she had to come back to mama. Then today she her out her arms to Edward and let him hold her. Daddy couldn't be happier.

Her personality is coming out more and more. She is starting to squeal and talk often. She has a feisty side when you play fight with her. She will growl and make this cute scrunched up face and then laugh. It is the most amazing sight to see her and Joshua play like this together.

A funny thing she does is every time after she drinks some water she makes this grunt "mmmmm". Last night after she drank she did her mmmm and then said "guu" like she was saying "mmm good!". All of us at the table laughed.

Miss Brooke does not want her image to be ruined. If her face is even slightly messy from food, she immediately wipes it off by flinging it on one of us, wiping it on my pants, or throwing it on the floor. It is funny to us that we had forgotten what having a baby was like. We had forgotten that you have to move everything off the table while she is sitting with us. I'm sure the hotel staff roll their eyes when they see us come in for breakfast. I love it!

Today we went to the Nationality Village and spent 6 hours there. Whew! On the way there we saw different buildings that were of Thai influence. Gorgeous.

China has 56 different Chinese ethnicities, and 26 of them are located here in Kunming, Yunnan, and that is what the Nationality Village is about. We got to see beautiful gardens (including a butterfly garden), housing, pagodas, ponds, and real Buddhist temples. It was a wonderful day.

AND! I can now say I've seen the Himalayas. As we toured the Village, a couple foothills of the mountain range were in front of us, and as we watched the elephant show we could hear the thunder rolling over the mountains. How much more perfect can this get, people!?!?!?

Sorry guys, I just tried 5 times to upload pictures but it does not work tonight. I will try again tomorrow.

Since I just typed out a nice long post for you and the computer decided to lose it, I will make this new typing brief.

Brooklyn is an absolute dream. She is no longer a hope, a distant dream, or a picture. She is really here with us. Edward and I just stare at her when we should be sleeping like her. She has attached very strongly to me and has had an easy adjustment. I had expected the transition to be difficult, but it hasn't been. She is an angel and loves her new family.

The girl is an eating machine. She has not stopped since we got her, and that is okay with us since she still has room to grow into her 12 month clothes. She is much smaller and lighter than we expected from her measurements. The weight and height must have been taken with her 74 layers of clothing on.

With each new hour she opens up more and more. We love seeing her sweet personality and hearing her laugh. AND! She took her first step today. I'm so glad we were able to be here for that first. Unbelieveable. I need to get back upstairs before Brooklyn wakes up from her nap and realizes I'm not there.

I just had an entire post typed out and four pictures loaded on, but sure enough it did not post. *sigh*

We will be leaving Beijing for Kunming, Yunnan in just an hour. We will be only a few miles from Brooklyn and it will take every ounce of self-restraint to not go over there and have her in my arms. In less than 24 hours, she will be with us.

Yesterday was a full and tiring day. We first visited the Great Wall. As we drove along the flat valley of Beijing, knowing we were close to the Great Wall, out of no where beautiful lush mountains appeared and we caught our first glimpse of the Great Wall.

It was the most surreal feeling to be standing on the guard tower of such an ancient site, looking as far as the eye could see at the expanse of the Wall. I am not ashamed to admit that I did not make it far up the stairs. Each step was were extremely steep, about 18 inches tall (beat that step aerobics!) and were, at times, so narrow that we could climb up on only the balls of our feet. To get down we had to hold the railing and step sideways. Needless to say, we are all sore today.

Our next stop was to the Ming Tombs. Most in our group were disappointed that they didn't at least drag out the bodies or caskets, but we were all astonished at the treasures and formal wear that were unearthed and on display.

The picture that will hopefully load up completely is of the Summer Palace. It is one of my favorite pictures. We were riding on a dragon ferry across the lake as I took the shot. The Summer Palace was constructed for the "dragon lady- Cece" as a resort from the heat. It was mainly used as a prison for her husband from the years 1898 to 1908. Since he tried to escape several times, she eventually had brick walls installed at the entrance of his 4 room quarters. All of the rooms were locked but we were able to look into the windows of many of the 1000 room palace and view some of the original treasures and furniture.

I must be going now as I need to finish packing for our flight to Kunming. The next post you see will be of Brooklyn and her new family. Thank you all for your comments and support. They mean so much to read them.

Ni Hao (hello) from China! I can’t believe we are really here. The food, the SIGHTS, the people, everything is amazing. We are having the time of our lives.

I’ll start from the beginning. Our flight from DFW was running quite late. We were supposed to leave at 8:30 and at that time, the plane hadn’t even arrived. I was about to lose it. I thought for sure we would end up missing our connecting flight because of the delay. Then the announcer came on and told everyone to line up immediately so we could all get loaded on and take off. The plane landed, unloaded, we got on and we were out of there in a total of 10 minutes of it landing. No joke. I had never seen that before.

We made the connection with no problem. Then the flight to Guangzhou. Only one word sums it up: painful. It was a 15 hour flight. Thankfully there were several other adopting couples on the flight so we all compared notes, show off our pictures, and play games. Barely any sleep was had, but not by choice. Then we had to board another plane to Beijing. The total amount of hours from the time we got to DFW until we landed in Beijing was 28. I weep a little every time I think of the flight home with a toddler.

So, after being up for about 42 hours straight (and only 4 hours of sleep the night before that) I was too exhausted to post yesterday. There was just no way. All three of us crashed and sure enough woke up around 2 a.m. this morning.

On to the good stuff. The sight seeing today was phenomenal. The itinerary had changed slightly, so today we saw the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Summer Palace, and Temple of Heaven. I would not be able to accurately describe these ancient sights, but we stood in amazement as we gazed at their beauty.

Lunch today was, well, interesting. I had committed myself to eating only vegetables but since they had a fried, battered fish I thought it would be fine. I went to cut the fish and first off, the skin was still on it (so were the fins and the tail!). I tried to look past that and eat only the meat, but when an eyeball popped out at me, I had to draw the line. I still gag a little when I think of it. Anyone that knows me is probably shocked since I’m a huge sushi fan. But no, that really creeped me out. However, I ate with no difficulty a raw worm at the silk factory and grossed out everyone, even the tour guide. It actually tasted quite good.
Tomorrow is the Great Wall and Ming Tombs. Only 3 more days until Brooklyn! I hope that I will be able to post pictures soon. The computer here in the hotel has an extremely slow connection and keeps disconnecting while I load the pictures. Hopefully tomorrow you can see some of the amazing pictures.

<------ Isn't that the sweetest picture you have ever seen!? I can't wait to see a smile on her face. One week from today she will be placed in our arms. The week will fly by very quickly since our schedule in Beijing is full. Not to mention, we lose a day going over there so we will be that much closer to our baby!

Last week as Edward and I were preparing for the trip we were on cloud nine, grinning from ear to ear, stress free in la-la land, and soaking in all the good feelings. But then Monday morning came and full on panic mode struck both of us. Our feet running hit the ground running and have just now stopped. Stress levels were at an all time high as we both had so much to do. At one point I even started getting sick to my stomach from all the nerves, stress, and excitement, but since we are now done packing I'm fine. The suitcases are packed and in the car, our animals are with their caretakers, our papers and documents are in order, and other than a few last minute things I will have to do tomorrow, we are totally ready to take off!

The day is really almost here. It's so hard to believe. In 24 hours from now, we will have just boarded the plane to China for the long, long flight. We will arrive in Beijing Friday morning, and depending on how completely wiped out we are, I will try to post soon after we are settled in the hotel.

Here is our itinerary:

August 23rd: leave that night to LAX for our connection.

Two hour layover in LAX (with the new security issues I hope we will be able to make our plane on time!) and we fly to Guangzhou, China.

August 25th: Arrive in Guangzhou at 6:20 a.m.. (yes, I cringed as I typed that. It’s a loooooong flight, folks! At least it’s premium economy….as I repeat that 50 times.)

Leave Guangzhou at 8:20 a.m. and arrive in Beijing at 10:55 a.m.Force ourselves to stay up until bed time….3 p.m..

August 26th: Wake up (hopefully) refreshed and head out with a group to the Great Wall (!) and Ming Tombs (!).

August 27th: Go with same group to Forbidden City (that is one of my dreams!), Temple of Heaven, and Summer Palace.

August 28th: Leave Beijing early in the morning for Kunming, Yunnan, the province where our daughter lives. !

Three hour flight to Kunming.

Explore beautiful Kunming, “the spring city”, the foothills of the Himalayas, and come to find out today, the daily high temps are around 70. ! Just slightly cooler than Dallas in August.

Get ready for the coming morning by gift wrapping the pot, I mean loose tea, and Godiva Chocolates and put together the diaper bag.

August 29th: okay, I can barely type this. My eyes literally are filled with tears. FuLuZhao is placed in my arms and will be known as Brooklyn from that time forward (although we will say “Brooklyn FuLuZhao” to her until she recognizes her new name).

For the next week we have to wait until police clearances pass before we can leave Kunming. And paper work. Then more paper work. From the pictures we’ve seen and things we’ve heard about Kunming, it is a glorious place to be “stuck” in for a week.

September 5th: Leave the birthplace of our daughter (with our daughter!) to Guangzhou. It makes me sad to think of leaving her birthplace.

That night in the White Swan Hotel (where we will be staying), we will party on with all the little ones that have already had their first birthdays. What a uniting time! The room will be filled with 20 or so families that just became parents (some for the first time!) and are gathered to celebrate the first year of their new children’s lives.

I’m not sure when we do from day to day while we are in Guangzhou, but we need to take Brooklyn down to the medical examiner’s office for an exit exam (very minimal check up), obtain her visa and passport, and complete a huge stack of papers for the consulate appointment. And more paperwork. All of this is necessary to finalize the adoption.

Also, we are going to go with a group down to the Six Banyan Trees (Buddhist) Temple and have our babies blessed by monks. How exciting!

September 7th: Consulate Appointment.

September 9th: Depart late in the evening for LAX and arrive at 6:50 that same night in LA (we gain a day when we cross over the int’l date line). The flights on the airline back to our airport were full so we have to spend the night in LA and then return home on Sunday, September 10th.

Welcome to the Ballantyne family travel blog. Edward, Joshua and I (Ashley) will be travelling to China to adopt our daughter, Brooklyn, August 23rd through September 10th. We are happy that you decided to come along with us (although physically coming with us would have been better!).

We will be able to access the blog daily from the hotels, or at least that is what I've seen others do. We are new to blogging and we also are new to our digital camera so I will apologize now if we are unable to post pictures from China since it needs a special software.

We hope you will enjoy getting to see and read what we do daily, and hope you will post us comments so we can read your reactions. It is easy to post a comment. At the bottom of each new post that I write, there is a little "button" you can click that says "post a comment" (or something along those lines), click that and it will bring you to where you can type out a message for us. It will ask you if you are a blogger or you want to leave an anonymous message. If you don't have a blog, you will need to check "anonymous" and then sign your name at the end of your message so we will know who left the comment.

But if you comment about the random Better Homes and Gardens picture below, I will ban ya. ;)

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