Ramblings...

She usually doesn't look this worried about things...we sat her down for one of the first times on the floor to play with her brothers and toys...she wasn't trusting the idea at first!
...she got used to it very quickly!

Meeting Wesley...
Garrett enjoying being a big brother for the first time!

I have comprised a list of ideas and things for those of you getting ready to travel or waiting to travel to China. These are things that I wish I had known about to bring...or not to bring! I know most of you have a "packing list" to copy or borrow...I borrowed my list from a friend and just made changes as needed. So, I am NOT going to post our packing list because there are like a blue gazillion out there on-line to download! However, these are a few things that I DIDN'T have on the list and they would have been SO great to have had. First, even if the little voice inside your head tells you to NOT bring movies for you to watch on your "down" time...bring some anyway. If you have a laptop you will be able to watch them on the laptop. And...YOU WILL have plenty of downtime. Especially in your babies Provence. We were in our hotel room more than we were out...the weather was horrible and there wasn't much to do outside in her Provence anyway. There is only so much Discovery Channel or CNN one can watch...we would have LOVED to watch a few movies during naps or before bed!
Secondly, if you don't know about "Skype"...find out about it! It is the BEST way to communicate back to home. We DIDN'T know about it at first and in Beijing we used a calling card home...only cost about 8 US dollars. That doesn't sound bad, but, once again, in the Provence the calling cards wouldn't work unless we used an outside phone line...which IS NOT convenient! Skype is virtually free (2 cents a minute) we downloaded it on our computer and called home. Our boys talked to us via the land phone and we talked via the computer! I was able to even call other friends and family (not just the boys!). If you actually download Skype to your home computer before you leave...it won't even cost 2 cents a minute...it will be FREE! And, it gets even better, if you have cameras on your computers (web cams or laptop cameras) then you can talk face to face...for FREE! Don't fall for the "panda phone" or "calling card" suggestions that will be given to you when you prepare for travel...check out Skype...we are totally all about that! So glad our friends in China (props to Evelyn!) showed us how to use it!
Thirdly, I want to emphasise this one...BRING PEANUT BUTTER! If you are traveling with anyone that is a picky eater, this will save you at some point! We brought PB and bought bread at every Provence and ate it at least 2 times in every Provence we were at. You can only eat so much rice...just a suggestion!
Regarding Travel...EVERYTHING MUST WEIGH UNDER 44 lbs! This is a biggy! We witnessed people (even in our travel group) who had to actually open their suitcases and flip flop stuff around because they weighed to much. You don't want to have to wait until you are at the airport to do this...especially a foreign airport! Someone loaned us a small luggage scale that actually weighed less that .5 lbs...it saved us! You only get to bring one suitcase per person going to China...coming home you can bring two. We bought a third suitcase in Guangzhou (if you do any shopping at all you will have to do this to get home!) for 13 US dollars (props to Jesus on that one!). Steve wants me to point out also, that on the way back you actually have to check your luggage at 3 different airports (or however many airports you travel to going home). Because you are coming from a "foreign" country and have to go through customs you will have to retrieve your luggage at the baggage claim at every airport and re-check it and go through customs and security each time (it is acutally worse in the US airports on the return trip). Remember this when you are packing your "carry on" items to go home...Going to China we had 4 carry on's (slightly excessive???)...coming home we eliminated 2 of those. Thank God! All of the checking in and going through security each time was a huge pain...extra carry on's would have been a HUGE hassle on top of everything else!
I am also glad that I brought a whole pack of US diapers. They were needed. I had debated on bringing a few...and in the end, packed a whole pack. Chinese diapers are crappy diapers (excuse the pun!)...they don't hold very well at all and can really only be used for short periods. So, overnight and for long trips the US diapers were needed and worked so much better...FYI!
One thing I didn't have and really could have used multiple times was a formula dispenser. It would have come in handy on SEVERAL occasions...but especially when we traveled home. The mom's I traveled with had them and said they got them at Babies R Us...I just ended up filling a bunch of Playtex refills and putting rubber bands around them! Which brings me to the last thing I can think of .... If you bring any bottles at all bring the refillable Playtex kind. We switched her to those several days after Gotcha day, and they were so easy to pack. We didn't have to have multiple bottles that took up a lot of space...just make sure you bring enough refills (50-100) for the trip. The Orphanage bottles were poor quality and took up a lot of room! We also had our Chinese Guide read the instructions for us on our formula bag...the orphanage told us what they were doing and it didn't correspond at all to the instructions on the bag! They were actually halving the amount of formula needed and upping the rice cereal dose (as a filler...). So, once we figured that out we were able to switch her around on that as well! Okay, that is it...but these "tidbits" of information really would have helped me if I had gotten them ahead of time, so I hope it helps SOMEONE out there at some point!
BTW...if anyone has some suggestions on "changing" your babies schedules to American time let me know! We are having a hard time with this! Granted, it is only our third night...but, all of a sudden she doesn't like her crib and she is waking up ALL OF THE TIME! I don't think I am doing something right! Any suggestions from BTDT moms???