what i liked most about hong kong

About a year before Steve and I decided to adopt from China, I asked him where he wanted to visit.
You know, anywhere in the whole world-type-of-question.
Without much hesitation, he said London and Hong Kong.
Two springs later we were in London.
With Henry.
And Eliana--in my belly.
Look at Henry, playing at a water park in front of London Bridge.

 

And then there I am at the Easy Hotel. 

I am smiling and giddy because we are about to leave. 

Insomnia plagued my nights there.

Insomnia and an active 15 month old.

Active--asleep and awake.

 So...back to Hong Kong.

Steve and I left two days early for China.

We spent it in Hong Kong.

I really, really liked Hong Kong.

Mountains.

Exotic trees.

Salt water.

Out door escalators.

The Peak.

Hello Kitty.

So much to report about that city.

I think I liked the open markets the best.

Lame?

Don't care.

The bird market.

 The flower market.

The fish market.

Not to eat.

Alive, swimming around coral and all kinds of green and blue and gorgeous.

No pictures allowed.

Oh well. 

I will remember Brian and Tony(short for Antoinette).

A couple we met at the Peak.

They had flown to Bali and married on the beach.

Then to Thailand and out of Hong Kong.

They are generous souls.

Henry just turned 4.

People ask if I can believe it. 

You know, time flies and all.

I can believe it. 

3 kids later.

A business later.

London.

Hong Kong.

A full, beautiful, crazy life.

Jia!

After nearly five years, we completed our adoption of a daughter from China, November 29, 2010. We call her Jia, pronounced like Gia. Her name is part of the name her orphanage gave her, which is Jia Jing. And, even though in Chinese it's pronounced like "Ja," we "americanized" it to Jia.
O.k.
Now that is out of the way...

I've got loads on my mind about life in the past few months.
I won't ever get to it all.
But, here are the highlights...
By the way, I am having camera issues.
It pains me that this has happened now.
That I can't crop and edit the way I would like.
But I have waited far too long...so here goes
Installment #1
This is the moment I got Jia, adoptive parents often refer to it as "Gotcha" day.

Come to think of it, maybe that wasn't the moment I got her.
That could have been about 40 minutes afterward, because the moment I got her she was balling her brains out.
Then we gave her some milk.
You can't tell, but boy was she sweating.
I learned quickly that is what she does when she is anxious.
The orphanage director and a woman who is still unknown to me, brought  her to us at our hotel in Nanchang.
I can't remember the hotel name....
This next picture is bittersweet.

Bitter because Jia is so clearly sad and unsure.
Sweet because of Steve.
Sweet because it's at the Civil Affairs office, where we legally became her parents.
Even though we were officially her parents from that point forward, there was a lot of paperwork and immigration paperwork that had to be completed before we headed home.

After we adopted Jia, we spent most of our mornings visiting places of interest, like this  one... it's a picture of a door at the Chen Family Temple in Guangzhou.
I took it mostly for Henry's sake.

Then the rest of the day we spent at our hotel.
Jia slept.
Then, while Steve worked, we would try to find a place to play.

These were taken on our first or second full day together.
I detest the lighting.
I was thrilled to get a grin.
A sign of contentment and interest.

I feel so humbled to have Jia.
So sad that China lost its most beautiful baby.

She has begun to reveal herself more fully to us.
When she arrived she weighed less than 15 pounds.
After a week with pneumonia and diarrhea, she weighed 16.5 pounds.
She didn't crawl, pick up food or put much weight on her legs.
She now does all of that, and climbs the stairs and is "cruising."
Most of all, she is talking and animated more and more.
And, she needs to work on those skills, with these two.
They were exuberantly waiting for her arrival.

They can't get enough of her, most of the time.
Me either.