June 30th--2:00 PMCDT---Jeanne here. Chris is in the other room playing with Abigail before her afternoon nap. He has taken the afternoons off this week, which has really helped. She is still showing signs of being traumatized by this whole experience. When she's happy, she's very very happy. When she's mad, she's very very mad. As a result, we are keeping a pretty low profile and not doing a lot of going out or getting visitors. We are so excited to see all of the people who are praying for us and checking in on us. Thank you. We would thank you individually, but that would be nearly impossible right now. Know that we are reading the guest book and thinking about each of you when we hear from you.

We bought one of those baby blow up pools and filled it this afternoon for a time of frolicking in the sunshine. Abigail seems to really enjoy the water but is not real fond when she accidentally gets  her face wet. Sometimes she sees something under the water and bends down to get it, and doesn't realize the water is there and gets a face full. She doesn't cry ,but just gets a little worried look on her face. The sleep the past two nights has gotten better. She actually slept for 11 hours both nights (with the exception of waking about 4:00 for a bottle and then going right back to sleep). She's crawling better, too. We're trying to have as much floor time as possible and encourage that. Fred the cat actually really likes Abigail and will brush up against her for her to stroke his fur. Murphy, on the other hand, has a very depressed look about him. He's not quite sure what he can and can't do around her. She has a rubber duckie that squeaks and I've found it under the dining room table next to him a couple of times. Sounds an awful lot like a dog toy. She has a rabbit puppet that looks strikingly like a dog squirrel dog toy. It has been dragged out of the toy basket by Murphy a few times. I gently tell him "no" and he looks so confused. We're trying to give him as much attention as possibile, too.

Grandma Buck is coming to visit tomorrow and Nana and Poppop Coburn will be here on the 13th. Every day we see some relaxation coming from Abigail. After her being here about 3 weeks, we should see some dramatic changes and then we'll be able to receive more visitors. I know you want to see more pictures so I'll post some here.

A good picture from the 3rd day in China

First time in a pool in China

This is "the red couch photo". The White Swan Hotel, where we stayed in China, has red couches. It is tradition to have the babies' pictures taken on the red couch. L-R Sophia, Peyton, Abigail. It's pretty hard to get everyone on the same page at the same moment.

Mommies with babies on the red couch. L-R: Trudi and Sophie, Jeannine and Peyton, Jeanne and Abigail.

Daddies and babies on the red couch. L-R: Chris and Abigail, Tim and Peyton, Steve and Sophie.

Some of the lovely food you can order from the buffet at the Dim Sum restaurant in China

More lovely food.

And more lovely food. Can't you just smell it??

And another delicacy.

We're almost home!! (USA that is)

June 27, 1:00pm CDT --- Chris here. It was a rought night last night. Abigail might have slept 2 hours, hence Jeanne only slept 2 hours. I got home at 11:00 this morning and took the baby. Both are now sleeping.

The trip home was good until we tried to catch our flight to Atlanta from LAX. We got into LA Fiday night and spend the night at a hotel -- gorged ourselves on real American food. We all slept great. We even got up chipper and early Saturday morning. We got to the airport around 8:20 for the 9:40 flight which is apparently too late to make the flight. It took 2 hours just to get through the line to the Delta ticketing desk. Then, since we missed out flight, we stood there and argued with them for another hour about how we were supposed to get home. All flights on every airline (we checked American to verify) that could get us to Birmingham, Altanta, Mobile or Montgomery were 100% full. After some serious discussion, the manager finally gave us a free hotel and meal vouchers (meal vouchers were worthless), but we had to stay in LA another day doing nothing. Thats where things started to suck. Abigail got crying/screeming and could not be consoled. It was a long night.

Moral of the story for those of you planning your trip: DON'T STAY OVERNIGHT IN LA! TAKE THE RED-EYE AND JUST GET HOME!!

We got home around 9:00 pm on the 24th - Thanks to Kevin for picking us up.

Yesterday - Monday - was our first visit to the excellent International Adoption Clinic. Its like a counselor, pediatrician, and physical therapist all rolled into one, specializing in kids adopted fromforiegn countries. The nurses, Dr.'s, and therapists all have adopted children - most from China. They know what's up. If you can get there, I reccomment them 100%. They checked Abigail out and took some blood for analysis. All her measurements put her squarely in the center of the American child growth charts. Everything seems fine on the once-over. In 4 weeks we go back for the results and do some physical therapy kind of stuff. Her abdominal muscles and crawling coordination are slow becuase, like most Chinese orphanage babies, she was never put on the floor. All the pictures we have of her show her in a walker kind of thing where her legs and hands never had to work together and she was always held upright. Not a big deal - just a bit behind schedule.

Sleep continues to be the biggest problem. The Dr. says that is the #1 issue for most families in our shoes. She recommended Benadryl for babies. It did nothing. The stroller trick didn't even work. Jeanne walked her around the neighborhood - the long way - this morning. Murphy-the-Dog wore out before she did. She didn't go to sleep. People ask me "how is your daughter?" and I reply "awake"

We're all still Jet lagged. Jeanne and Abigail more than me since Jeanne is more on Abigail's schedule than I am (I'm back to work for 1/2 days this week) Its been very trying for both of us, but we're muttling through.  Here we are opening some presents...

Good book

All kinds of good stuff...

A BIG balloon!!

June 20th, 6:00 PM---Chris is down in the hotel play room with Abigail so I have just a minute. We are going out to McDonalds tonight for dinner. I never thought I would be so excited to go to McDonalds for food.  Today Abigail got to have her first time in the swimming pool She did great and actually like it. Chris will post pictures later. She a little better today and we're seeing more of her personality coming out. She knows how to shake her head "no" and every time she does we shake our heads "yes". She thinks that's funny. Chris keeps saying " Daddy needs to buy a shotgun" because she is so beautiful and thinks he should get an automatic machine gun while he's at it. She is a heart breaker. We're still having sleep issues. and pushing her in the stroller for what seems to be an eternity seems to put her to sleep with out fussing so we're going to be getting lots of exercise.  We're looking forward to getting home.