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June 19, 2:30 pm -- Chris here -- Nana has requested pictures of her favorite son and new grandaughter:
June 19, 12:30 PM---Jeanne here finally. Abigail has been very fussy since we got to Goungzhou. She had a sore tummy last night and Chris walked around the hall with her for an hour at 2:30 in the morning. She finally got to sleep again this afternoon right before I logged on but the computer volume was turned up when it started up so she woke up. Chris is walking around with her again and is now feed ing her a bottle. We are tired. She is tired.Her smile melts our hearts. We're ready to come home. She is very good at clapping, waving, and clicking with her tongue. Today is a free day. Thanks goodness. We are just hanging out today. Getting time on the computer is at a premium. Either someone else has it or Wiggle Worm is awake and won't let me on it, so we may not be able to post much more. Know that we miss everyone and are so glad you are praying for us. Abigail has a lot of people who are dying to meet her, we know. We look forward to you meeting her. If you are in the montgomery area we ask that you hold off a bit on wanting to get to know her when we get home, We think that might be a bit overwhelming. She's had a rough month. If you haven't read "Babies Booties" link to the left, make sure you take a minute to do so. It really is a great story from the baby's perspective. June 17, 10:00 pm Guangzhou, China --- Chris here again --- We made it to Guangzhou. We got up, cleaned outselves, ate and left the White Rose in Wuhan by 6:45 - no fun. No problems with the flight except Abby would not sit still. About 20 minutes before landing, she finally fell asleep. She's really coming around to us, but is still not interested in sleeping. The latest sleep prevetion tactic is The Wiggles. She's like a pin-ball in the crib, and on the plane she wanted to be with mom, then with dad, then on the seat with her toys, then repeat at random. The good news is that she was really good on the plane - she had a bottle on take off and juice at landing - no ear problems.
Anyway, enjoy the pics... June 16, 5:00 pm Wuhan, China ---- Chris here --- Jeanne is out shopping with the other moms. Abby and the girls are sleeping. Every day is better. Abigail is really starting to settle down and relax some. Too bad tomorrow we get on a plane and go to another hotel. We got all the signed doccuments back from the government today and were thanked for our "donations". We have her Chinese passport now, so we can travel to Guangzhou to the American Consulate and get her through our government's paperwork. We fly from Wuhan to Guangzhou early tomorrow. Here are some pics:
June 15, 2:30 pm local time----Today is much better. Abigail is more relaxed and less clingy. She actually played on the bed and the floor with Chris and I without having to be touching me. She is letting Chris hold her and, in fact, actually let one of the other dads hold her just a minute ago at lunch while Chris and I ate. She didn't freak out! We're seeing more smiles and more chuckles.We're not out of the woods yet, and it will be a while before we are, but we are making progress. We will be going to see the Yellow Crane tower here in Wuhan in a few minutes. It's a local tourist attraction. I think if you search it on the web you will find it. This will be our second outing. Yesterday we walked to the department store and the grocery store. Lots of walking. We weren't sure how Abigail would do with riding in a stroller but it actually worked! She was ok and that was a big relief to me because my arms are killing me. This child is definitely going to make me lose weight. We know many of you are praying for us and we can feel it. We still can't get over how beautiful she is. Shehas 4 teeth. When she smiles those 4 teeth just glow. Chris will upload more pictures later. Jeanne-- who is feeling much more relaxed, also.
June 12--12:50pm Chris here... We have her!!! She's been crying hysterically for 2 hours and just fell asleep looking out the hotel room window in Jeanne's arms. She was taken from her foster home this morning and given to us so she's had quite a day. We have nothing for her that is familiar and my heart is breaking becuase we canot do anything but hold her. It is obvious that she was loved and loved her foster family. She'd quiet down and then notice that nothing around her was quite right, then start crying again... not an "I want" cry, but a tearful, lost and confused cry. Its going to be a tough time for her for now. Please pray for her while she grieves and accepts us. BTW - She's beautiful! I'll post pics when I can. June 12--7:30 Am local time (that's 6:30 PM sunday CST) We made it here without too much trouble. We met up with our travel partners LAX and flew to Ghounghou and met up with our guide, Peter in the airport. Then we flew on to wuhan and checked into the hotel. The whole time change thing is not something I can totally get my head around but that's ok. I just accept it. Trudi and Steve are the least computer savy people in our group and they're the only ones who brought a laptop with them, so we'll be posting on their computer. We tried the busines center at the hotel but the connection was just WAY too slow and I could't get into this web site creator. We were very tired after the LONG flight but we did manage to sleep a bit on the plane. Actually we snuck upinto business class and sat there after we took off. Those seats were so much nicer. Yesterday, Sunday, after we got here we took showers and went to a dept. store similar to a wal-mart and Chris and I bought a few bottles of water. the water here is not safe to drink anywhere so you have to buy bottled water for drinking and brushing teeth. Today we pick up Abigail!!!!! We leave in just a few hours!! I've been up off and on since 2:30. time change--excitement, etc. There is a crib in our room and we are on "the baby floor" of the hotel. This is the floor all of the adoptive families stay on. When you get off the elevator, there is an area with baby toys for playing and baby decorations on the walls. We've got to go down and eat breakfast and go get here. by the time you wake up Monday morning, we'll have her with us!!!!!! We're excited, scared, nervous, al wrapped into one. Hopefully we'll be able to post pictures later on after we get her here. I think the plan is just to pick up the babies and come back to the hotel for the day. I'm gonna run now so we can get to breakfast before we leave. Thank you so much for all of your prayers. We feel them. This is our travel itinerary for getting to China. We are supposed to be getting our in country itinerary on Tuesday, the 6th. Check back later. Jun/09 Montgomery/Atlanta DL4120(2:00P/4:09P)
June.22 Pick up visa at 4:30pm and go to airport. Arrive in Atlanta at 5:54 PM Leave Atlanta at 7:01 PM Arrive in Montgomery at 7:10 PM |
The 4-tooth grin! It doesn't happen in front of the camera very often. 
Dad, trying to sleep after a long Father's Day night.
FLYING on a tour of Guangzhou, in front of a sculpture of a historical Chinese dude.
Same tour at a china work shop. Really, they do make china in China! Hand painted, too.
She would't fall asleep anywhere else. 
We're at the White Swan Hotel now. 5 stars. woo. The Queen of England, Nixon and Bush I all stayed here at some point. The problem is that we have been spoiled by the White Rose hotel we were at in Wuhan. It wasn't as classy as this joint, but it had a lot more ammenities for babies - baby food on the resturant menu, strollers, good high chairs, large rooms, free-but slow internet access. The White Swan is in a lot nicer and friendlier neighborhood though. There is lots of shopping and resturants. There are American families with Chinese kids all over the place here. I can't imagine how many must come through here. 
June 14, 8:00 AM Local time---Ok. I've got a break so I'll post a little more. Chris and Abigail are down stairs walking around. If I'm in the room, she cries. She's ok if he walks her around. Let me tell you, that man is in love with that baby! It's so great to see him so in love with her. Mr. Impatient is finally pretty dog gone patient considering all the screaming Abby has been doing. He's not even really fazed by it other than that he doesn't want her to feel so bad. She is a smart baby. She knows exactly what has happened to her and she doesn't like it one bit. From her perspective, she's been kidnapped. She slept from about 8:30-4:30 this morning. That's not quite long enough and when Chris gets back with her she will need another nap. We can not get over how beautiful she is. She is so pretty. Thanks to all for all of your prayers.They are helping. Each day is just a little bit better. We're not out of the woods yet, in fact they just walked in and we're crying again cause I can't hold the baby and type at the same time, so gotta go. More later......
June 13, 9:30pm Wuhan China time -- Chris here again. She is officially ours. We signed the Chinese legal doccuments today, so Abigail Jia Xing Coburn is ours for keeps! She's gotten desperately attached to Jeanne, so the only time I get to hold her is to walk her around he hotel for sightseeing and entertainment when mom needs a break. We get to play and laugh, but always clinging to Jeanne. The picture below of her sitting on the bed alone would not be possible now. Her plumbing might be running a bit slow, so we gave her some "prunes and pears" courtesy of Gerber. She downed the whole dang jar - except for what ended up on her face! Good thing we have the day free tomorrow. It should be interesting. Jeanne is out getting a well earned message at the hotel spa with the other new moms. She'll probably worte more later.
June 12, 4:20 PM--She's doing much better. She slept for about 45 minutes. Then she woke up much more relaxed. She's getting much more fun. We played with the stacking cups and the musical balls. we also went to the restaurant downstairs and ate. She hasn't cried since this morning. She doesn't like to be put down much. She's smaller in size than we thought she would be. Much more fine boned. Still probably in 12 month clothes but could probably still do 9 mos. She loves to look out the window. She sings this little song that is a four tone "Jia-a-a-a". Obviously someone taught her that so we sing it, too. She also knows how to wave bye-bye. She scoots around, not crawl and doesn't seem to be very steady on her feet yet. She's absolutely the prettiest baby. We're enjoying her much more this afternoon. It was so heartbreaking seeing her sobbing so hard for her nanny. The other babies with us didn't cry much. One of them had a high fever. There's another group here that is leaving tomorrow. Two of the parents in that group are doctors. One is a pediatrician and the other is an OB/GYN. How lucky is that that they have them in their group. Trudi and Steve (in our group) took their baby to the pediatrician for the high fever. The other babies have taken 2 naps already. Not Abigail. Only that 45 minute one. I hope she sleeps well.
