We are Home and Happy!!!

Thank you to everyone who followed our journey and posted comments. It was a pleasure reading them when we returned. Unfortunately, I was unable to post from Guangzhou. Chalk it up to being absolutely exhausted and so little free time. Molly needed my attention all of the time and when she was sleeping so was I. In addition, our schedule was very busy in Guangzhou.

Let me first describe the White Swan Hotel. It was incredible. President Nixon and Bush have stayed there during their time in China. Just recently the North Korean President stayed there and they shut down the entire island. All adopting families had to move to other hotels accept for the Holt Families. Think of what the Waldorf Astoria is to New York, that is what the White Swan is to Southern China. All American families must pass through Gaungzhou before heading to the States to complete the adoption process and they all stay at the White Swan. There were American families everywhere with Chinese children. The shops all around the hotel cater to adopting Americans. The weather was glorious and it was so nice to walk around the hotel. It was really fun batering with the local shop owners and walking to eat outside of the hotel. We ate at Lucy's everyday for lunch and many times for dinner. They served American food and the prices were so reasonable (more money to shop with)! Zac, Molly and I had this fabulous soup and grilled cheese sandwiches everyday for lunch. We took the famous Red Couch picture. All children in their travel groups sit on this red couch on the second floor for a farewell picture. I will post pictures. Trying to get 9 babies all to look at the camera was quite a task, but very enjoyable. We bonded with so many of the families in our travel group and it was so hard to say goodbye. By the end of our trip we all felt like family.

The plane ride home was long and tough. Molly was really very good considering she was on my lap for over 15 hours. The flight home was filled with babies, so there was always at least one baby screaming at all times. We hit alot of turbulance, on our descent I was getting quite nervous. We landed safely and then had to wait another 45min to deplane because of a cargo plane still at our terminal. Knowing that Tim, Max, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Rob and Sonia were so close but we couldn't get off the plane was making me crazy. When we finally saw them, it was just great. They had flowers and posters to welcome us home. In addition many of our friends had balloons waiting by the front door and side door as well as the mailbox for Molly.

Zac and I had been up for 30hours after traveling and both were in bed at 10:00pm and slept until 5:30pm the following day. Tim had plenty of time to bond with his daughter. Because her nights were our days, she didn't go to sleep until 5:30am. Like I said, Tim had plenty of time to bond with Molly. It only took her two nights to adjust to the time difference. Her adjustment with the new house, family and family dogs was amazingly easy. It was like she was always apart of our family. She has also bonded well with her extended family and is very fond of my father. She loves men and is a big flirt. She loves to eat and eats just about everything that we give her. She loves Chocolate!!! I will post some updated pictures with the stories behind them soon.