CHINA PICS!!!

I have never been a fan of flying but Ronayne helped me through it, over 30 hours of traveling! UGH!!












Group pictures in Beijing... it was chilly there and I LOVED IT! ( not a fan of the heat )


















Various pics of my beautiful baby girl Ruby Cate Pei Mu!


Medical Exam room for Adopted Babies... RUBY PASSED WITH FLYING COLORS!!!


Ruby's bestest buddy Thia, they had a BLAST together!! WE MISS YOU ALREADY THIA!!!!



Pic's of Shamian Island, Guangzhou China. (Where the White Swan is located...)


Ruby's other good buddy Song, isn't she just precious? WE MISS YOU SONG & ERMA!! (her momma)


The 'CHOP' girls of Guangzhou... now, there are TONS of places selling chinese hand carved Chops, but these two got all my business, and trust me, I bought over a dozen chops! ;)
(A chop is a hand carved wooden stamp with your child's name on it in both english & then the chinese characters as well as any little symbol you'd like to add, like ladybugs or butterflies etc...) I LOVED THE CHOPS I GOT!


Ok, when they say that the kids in China wear 'split pants' THEY AREN'T KIDDIN! This kid was wandering around outside a 7-11 we frequented to get bottled water & I couldn't resist taking this pic, HELLO PUT SOME PANTS ON THE POOR BOYS FRANK & BEANS WILL YA?@$#$%



More pics of my precious punkin' hehehe I LOVE THAT KID!




Chicken anyone? I'll have mine WITHOUT THE HEAD & BEAK PLEASE! ugh BOGUS!


Awwwww, this is a pic of Ruby on the Famous Red Couch with her older friend Wynn, WE LOVE WYNN! She was the sweetest little girl ever & really was a joy to be around! WE MISS YOU WYNN!



Boats along the Pearl River in Shamian Island, Guangzhou.


My FAVORITE Red Couch pic of all the ones I took that day, it's adorable!


Ruby in her bathing suit even though she refused to go in the water! LOL ( she's not as insane as her momma apparently!)










The gorgeous grounds & the pool at the White Swan!


Our friend Wynn with her new Cell phone her Momma bought her! It was so cute to watch her talk on it, I could eat that kid up!



AWWWW THIA WE MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!!!! Ruby really enjoyed spending her time with you while we were all together in China! CAN'T WAIT TO GET TOGETHER AGAIN REAL SOON!















More pics from Guangzhou, China.






Three different LONG flights home & my baby girl SLEPT MOST OF IT! She's such a trooper!!!

Last day in China!

Ok, today is our last day in China, currently I'm at the business center using the hotel computers and it's ok but I swear I think the connection is slow on purpose so that it'll take me TWICE AS LONG to blog & they get TWICE AS MUCH MONEY FROM ME! As if I haven't already helped the Chinese economy ENOUGH ALREADY! lol I'm glad you're all enjoying the pics, I don't have any I can post right now because I forgot my chord to connect the cam to the computer, but I promise once I'm home I'll post EVERY SINGLE PICTURE I HAVE ON MY CAM! There's over 200! =)

Well, my cell phone is charging, my charger shit the bed while here so I had to come to the business center & I was able to use their charger for Nokia phones for FREE! So I thought while I was here I might as well just be online! We're gonna go buy some chinese childrens books today & then it's off to the U.S. Consulate to swear my Ruby Cate in as a U.S. Citizen & then I receive her Visa to get into the United States! SO EXCITING! Thanks so much to everyone who has commented on my blog, I've read them all and appreciate the sweet sentiments! Ruby is VERY EXCITED to come home & meet her family & friends & especially her doggie Ebenezer! Once we're all settled in at home I'll try & post a quick 'We're home safe" blog then sometime over the weekend I'll post ALL THE PICTURES FOR EVERYONE TO SEE! I even got one of a little chinese boy wearing SPLIT PANTS! SERIOUSLY A SCREAM TO SEE! ;)

Ok, take care everyone & looking forward to blogging from home! I LOVE YOU ALL! PRAY FOR A SAFE RETURN TRIP FOR US ALL!

Love,

-Amy & Miss. Ruby Cate Pei Mu!

RED COUCH PICTURE!!!

HELLO EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!! It's me, AMY! I am ACTUALLY POSTING TO MY OWN BLOG FINALLY!! I'm still in China but am currently in a small slice of heaven called Guangzhou, a little island off the southern coast of China and it's PARADISE HERE! I went SWIMMING today! The water was VERY COLD cuz it's an outdoor pool HOWEVER, anyone who knows me knows that I'm a damn FISH so I was IN THERE SO FAST! I do think though that after about 20 minues when I thought the water was starting to warm up that what was actually happening was that my body was going numb. LOL oh well, felt so good to swim in nov! Anyhoo... today was fun, we did our famous 'RED COUCH' picture where all of the Babies in my travel group get lined up along one of the many Red Couches in the White Swan Hotel and we take their pics! I'll give you all ONE GUESS WHICH ONE RUBY IS! lol (for those of you who don't know where I'm from, Massachusetts, home of the BOSTON RED SOX, is where I call home...) Now, qquick, find Ruby! ;) hee hee
She did SO GOOD! My precious little monkey didn't cry at all, she just sat & kinda looked around at all the other crying babies and was probably thinking " what's the problem people, it's just a picture...?' LOL She was so good! I'm having a wonderful time here in Shamian Island it's just beautiful! Shopping is so wonderful & SO CHEAP! *grin* I have just one more day here & then first thing wed morning at the ASS CRACK OF DAWN we leave the White Swan for the hotel & head for HOME!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait, I am excited for everyone to meet little Miss Ruby Cate and just want to sleep in my OWN BED and show Ruby her own Crib & her TONS OF TONS OF TOYS THAT ARE WAITING FOR HER! Plus, she has no idea yet but she's got an adorable lovable dog waiting for her too! I MISS YOU EBENEZER!!!

Here are some more pics for you all to enjoy & then I won't be posting again until I'm home but I want to say again a VERY BIG HUGE THANK YOU TO KAREN FOR ALL HER HELP WITH MY BLOG WHILE I'VE BEEN IN CHINA! KAREN YOU'RE THE BEST!!!

Ok so it's late monday night & tomorrow is the last day here, we have to drive with our babies to the US Consulate & do the swearing in ceremony on behalf of our babies & then we get their visa's so that we can FLY HOME WED!!!! OMG I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Enjoy the pics everyone & keep me and Ruby and Ronayne in your prayers as it is going to be one very long, very interesting, very tiring trip home! We fly from Guangzhou to Tokyo, then Tokyo to Detroit, then Detroit to Boston... then I'll be about ready to hang myself I'll be SO DAMN TIRED!!

Oh, and Paige, don't tell anyone you read all my bad words in here! LOL pretend you never saw em! ;)

Give my love to everyone & I can't wait for you to meet Ruby too! =)

Love to you all & I'LL BE HOME SOON WITH MY PRECIOUS BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER MISS RUBY CATE PEI MU!

Love always,

-Amy & Ruby

Checking In from Karen

Hi everone, Karen here. It's almost noon EST on Sunday, the 27th and I just wanted to post a quick update to say that I haven't heard from Amy in several days. I'm sure she's just busy as can be gobbling up and adoring her sweet Ruby. Should I hear from her, I'll be sure to post any updates.

I Bet I Know What Amy's Thankful for this Year!!

I Just Got a Call from China!!

Karen here. I just got a phone call from Amy (and Ruby!) and Mommy and baby girl are doing fabulously well. May I just begin by saying that Ruby was cooing and chatting away in the background and it was way too cute for words. She said, "La-la-la....ma....mmmm" which of course translates into, I'm guessing, "Look at how much my Mommy loves me." (Hee!) Here's what Amy had to say: All is well - hell, all is FANTASTIC! She's blowing off tours with the group because frankly, it's taking all her energy to stare lovingly at Ruby all day long. She said she could care less about the tours - she just wants to get home with her precious baby. Ruby's health is well - a bit of diahrrea but nothing too stressful. No assplosions as of yet. (That's a good thing!) Ruby was OFFICIALLY adopted as Amy's daughter on Monday, the 21st of November. And Ruby's totally hooked on her baby bear and blocks. Apparently, she loves them so much that she sleeps holding them and her grip is so tight that Amy can't get them away from her. Amy still doesn't know Ruby's exact weight but in her words, she's a "chunker!"

Our conversation was very brief but there was no denying the happiness of Amy's voice exuding through the phone line. Dreams are coming true, folks, and it gives me goosebumps. Oh yes - Amy said she will try and get me some more pics tomorrow. As soon as she does, I'll be sure to post. I promise.

Congrats again, Amy!! She's a cutie for sure!

She's a Real Cutie!

BEE-YOO-TEE-FUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gotcha!!!

To say that I'm IN LOVE is an UNDERSTATEMENT! This child is beautiful, amazing, wonderful, sweet, funny, kind, adorable, funny, and EATS LIKE AN ITALIAN!!!!!

Yesterday was Got'cha Day, it was pretty wonderful & hectic as well. I found out from our guide that the children were literally taken from their foster mothers THAT VERY MORNING & placed in the arms of STRANGERS for a two & a half hour bus ride into the city to our hotel & then placed into a big stuffy hell hot room & sat on tables to await their fate. They were then handed one by one to the anxious awaiting families and although we all were head over heels in love and so excited, the experience of it was not all love & fuzzy feelings. The babies screamed bloody murder as you can imagine and it took me about 30 minutes to get Ruby calmed down enough to sit with me & interact... and at about 45 minutes I got a smile and a giggle! She was slowly coming around and finally with the help of some childrens benadryl she slept like an angel from 8:30pm until 1:30am when it was time to wake Momma up & I suggested a Bath for our little miss 'spicy' girl (she smelled of something spicy) and she wasn't all that crazy about the bath but didn't scream her head off, was more of a 'you're bothering me' kinda whine... but after it was over and she was all dry & clean & dressed in a new outfit her Nanna bought her & a toasty fresh diaper etc... all was well with the world.

She played in her crib with the toys that I brought her and she's in LOVE WITH HER SOFT TEDDY! She ate some food, I made some instant oatmeal cinnamon & spice and she loved it & ate the whole thing but REFUSED to touch her bottle which made me a little worried but I figured she'd eventually come around, so I told myself that at least she ate & that's better than nothing, right? So we go back to sleep around 3am & slept until nearly 9am. She's a WONDERFUL SLEEPER! THANK YOU GOD IN HEAVEN!!!!!!!!!! When she woke up this morning she had the most adorable bed head sticking straght up to the heavens so I just let it be that way & finished it off with a cute hair bow, everyone thought I 'did that' myself LOL I said " thanks but nope, that's all mother nature & a good toasty bath before bed!" hehehe

I do FINALLY HAVE PICTURES! I am going to upload a few now and I ask again Karen to please post this text as well as the photos to my blog for everyone to see. I am just OVER THE MOON & BACK AGAIN IN LOVE WITH THIS BEAUTIFUL LITTLE GIRL I AM PROUD TO CALL MY DAUGHTER!

Oh, and by the way, Karen, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ADVICE ABOUT BRINGING A TON OF PEDIALYTE CUZ THAT'S ALL RUBY WILL DRINK! She won't TOUCH formula, chinese or otherwise! I have TONS of the Gerber Liqui Lytes packets and I finally got her to drink HALF AN 8 OZ BOTTLE TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I sobbed tears of joy as I was nervous that she'd be dehydrated if she didn't drink but you all must've been keeping us in your prayers cuz Ruby is drinking now & I couldn't be happier!!!

Today we have an appointment at 2:30 to go to the Notary for something, don't know, don't care, I have a daughter who DRINKS HER BOTTLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll just show up where & when I'm told & bring this BEAUTIFUL CHILD WITH ME! =)

I'll hopefully be able to continue to update everyone here & there because of a wonderful woman in our travel group who is completely ok with sharing her laptop with me SHE ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Take care & I'll look forward to posting again real soon!

-Amy & Ruby Cate!

Update from Amy

Hey guys!! Ok, it's sunday morning, Nov 20th, and I am happy to say that it's GOTCHA DAY!!!!!!!!!!! It's 7:05am in the morning and I'm showered & dressed and ready to go down to breakfast & enjoy my last meal here at the wangfujing grand hotel in Beijing! We leave here at 9am and head to the airport for our 11:30 flight to Nanchang! We will be staying at the Gloria hotel and our precious babies arrive at the hotel at 4:30pm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are 14 families receiving their precious children today and what a MAGICAL DAY IT'S GOING TO BE! We are all so happy and can't wait to see our babies! I have to apologise that I don't have any photos to share with you all because I can't get my camera to work with these computers here and who knows if I will be able to in Nanchang but please know that when I come HOME I will HAVE PICS OF RUBY FOR SURE!!

Yesterday we had a great day.

We went to the jade factory and the Great wall and the friendship store and then the cloisonne factory! We're having fun but I can't wait to meet my baby later on today so I'll post more from Nanchang!

Later Gaters... I'M OFF TO KISS THOSE CHEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOVE,

-Amy

A Cut and Paste Ni Hao from Amy!!

From Amy:

I don't know if this is going to work or not, the computer access
in Beijing kinda sucks A** but here goes nothing...

Ok so today is the end of day one in Beijing! We were up at the
BUTTCRACK of DAWN had a wonderful breakfast buffet & then all loaded
into the bus to head out to see Tien'amen Square (spelling?) The
Forbidden City, the Imperial Gardens, pearl market & the
silk factory! Great day, TONS OF WALKING AND I'M EXHAUSTED!
But excellent day all in all even if I am wiped out.

I got myself some silk bedding for back home IT'S GORGEOUS & RED AND
I'M IN LOVE WITH IT! and also I bought Ruby a pearl necklace & matching
bracelet for when she graduates college someday. I did take a ton of
pictures but can't upload any of them from here, maybe from Nanchang on
Sunday after GOT'CHA DAY!

Tomorrow it's another busy day of sight seeing, we go to the Great Wall
and go out to lunch at the friendship restaurant... we had lunch out
today too & it was authentic 'Chinese Food' half of it I didn't know what
it was but ate it anyways in the spirit of this whole experience.

I'm wiped out & need to get some sleep, it's 8:20 pm here so I hope this
finds it's way to you & you can do my email some justice on my BLOG! ;)

Hope to touch base again soon!

Love,

-Amy (and pretty soon RUBY! )

Still Haven't Heard Anything...

Hi all, Karen here. Still no word from Amy as of yet. I just wanted to touch base as I'm receiving quite a few emails asking about her. As soon as I know something, I promise to post. Here's to hoping she has her sweet baby girl in her arms very, very soon!

Amy's in Beijing!!

Hi all! This is Karen reporting in for Amy. I'm stepping in to post for her while she's away. They are safely in Beijing - exhausted but she sounds thrilled to be there. Quoted from the phone message I received from her: "There were flames shooting out of my a** as we sped through Tokyo, barely making our connecting flight. But we're here now [Beijing] and absolutely exhausted."

She's getting close to her sweet little Ruby and she promises to send pics as soon as she can. Tomorrow she's off to tour the city and have a fabulous time. Glad you made it safely, friend!