Things my sisters say...

Mom: Who broke your bed?
Elise: Hannah!
Lilly: Mom, now are you going to have to break all her bones? (Seriously. Where did she get that?)

Lilly: Look I found a BB!
Elise: Actually that's a poisonous grape.
Lilly: No. I know it's a BB.
Elise: No, your wrong, it's a poisonous grape. If you touch it you will die.
Lilly (touches it): Nope. I was right.

Lilly (to Elise and I on our walk): Stop it! You are giving me a tummy ache!
Me: What do you want us to stop doing?
Lilly: Walking and talking. It's giving me a big tummy ache.
Elise: You are just making that up.
Lilly: Stop it! Now my ear hurts!

Lilly has a record of sneaking into all of Chloe's candy and dressing up as Cinderella. :)
Chloe: Who snuck into my candy?
Lilly: Cinderella snuck into your candy.
Chloe: Why did you sneak into my candy!
Lilly: I am not Cinderella anymore.
Chloe: Whatever.
Lilly: Chloe, Elise ate it.

Lilly: I don't like cantaloupe.
Mom: You just ate cantaloupe.
Lilly: I like to eat cantaloupe, but I don't like it.

2/3 Cavities are filled!

So... I had to go to the dentist like a month before I left to China and get my front teeth all fixed. And I thought that sucked. Today I went back in to get the ones on my right side filled. Seriously. They gave me about 6 or 7 of those lovely shots that make you numb. We had lots of breaks. They would fill one and then wait to fill the next one and then wait. Anyways, so one of the hygienists came and started talking to me about my trip. Asking questions about Starfish, who my favorite babies were, what my favorite thing to do there was, and a lot more things. By then I was totally numb. I could barely talk and she wouldn't stop talking. I really think they don't understand or they must think it's the funniest thing ever to see us struggling to talk. So I explained my whole entire trip to them. I'm still pretty darn numb. When I smile only my left side goes up and it looks really attractive. :) I can talk semi normally now, but that is about it. My plans for today? Probably out of the window. Maybe not. Now instead of my whole entire right side of my face being numb it's only up to my eye. Yeah. And I still have one more appointment in 2 weeks. Note to self: no more pickles. :)

Starfish babies February/March 2012

 Elise

 Ryan

 Joy: Joy was adopted

 Anna

 Michelle: Michelle was adopted

 Lexie: Lexie was adopted

 Dawn: Dawn passed away

 Coco: Coco is matched

 Jane: Jane was adopted

 Jack: Jack was adopted

 Angel

 Kay Louise

 Angela

 David

 Isaac

 Iris

 Chloe

 Taylor

 Bryant

 Geoff

 Charlotte: Charlotte is matched

 Grace

 Judy

 Noah

 Seth

 Kathryn

 Bella

 Leo

 Marianne

 Ava

 Robyn

 Trevor

 Xander

 Megan: Megan is matched

 Louis

 Ethan: Ethan is matched

 Justin

 Kaitlin

 Chris

 Mila: Mila is matched

 Noelle

Emma

I made it home alive!!

{Trevor, nanny 1, nanny 2, nanny 3, Grandma, Xander}

 Our last day at Starfish definitely had it's ups and downs. I woke up at 6 (not normal) so I got 4 hours of babies before we left to the airport. Had a nice warm shower and saw no cockroaches. When we told the nannies we were leaving they all wanted to take a picture with us. Grandma spent her last hours holding Xander. Luckily she was feeling a lot better.

{Xander's nanny, Grandma, Xander}

 I spent my last hours going between Angel and Coco. I ended up holding Angel and playing with Coco a lot. When Christy told Coco I was leaving to go back to the states she put on the cutest pouty face and didn't take it off. She gave me kisses when I left. And waved too. Still had the pouty face of course.

We got to the airport in time and got all checked in and stuff. Grandma got caught in each security we went through for her chinese medicine in her backpack. The flight really wasn't that bad. On our flight from Beijing to Seattle Grandma and I didn't get to sit by each other because it was so crowded. She was on row 10 and I was on row 31. 31 is the second to last row on the plane. I got to sit by this chinese family with their adorable little girl that talked to me in baby chinese the whole flight. No good movies on the plane. I entertained myself by watching the muppets and other movies along those lines because I wasn't sleepy and didn't want to go find my book. I know. Lazy. I ended up sleeping for the last 3 hours of the flight, but that really isn't that long considering how much sleep I needed to be on track when we landed. When we did land we had to go through customs and all of that fun stuff. The customs here was definitely better than US customs in Vancouver, BC. We didn't get in trouble and were out before we knew it. Grandpa, Mom and Chloe met us at the exit. And surprised me with two of my friends: Emma and Emilee. I stayed up until midnight that night talking which I think helped with my jet lag because I slept pretty well. I had a head ache all yesterday. I slept until 11 this morning. Yeah. I think I might be caught up on sleep now. :) So far this whole jet lag thing isn't so bad. Yesterday was the worst, but I feel completely back to myself.
Now I' working on memorizing all my piano songs again because I seriously cannot remember the last half to both of them. Oops. I'm so happy to have my own bed and piano back. I don't have to worry about cockroaches.
Hannah came in at 7 am this morning with our dog, Oreo, to wake me up because I usually don't sleep that long.
Hannah: Wake up Rachel!!!
Me: I'm kind of trying to get over my jet lag. I'll come out after a few hours. And please get the dog off me.
Hannah: What's jet lag?
Yeah. We are working on that. She kind of understands the whole thing now. When I told her that I usually am going to sleep when it's around 7 am here she started to get it. When I walked down at 11 to eat breakfast/lunch she asked: are you over your jet lag yet? I wish.

Packing... :(

Where to start... I guess I'll start with Coco. Coco called me Rachel today. Then she told me to sit down by her, put her arm around me and told her nanny that I was her jie jie. I love that girl. I can't remember if I already said this but I'm saying it again because I'm so proud of her: Coco is walking by herself! She's super proud of herself. It's so cute.
I took Marianne and Xander to the reading room for some special time today. They were both so cute. Xander was a bit angry that he had to share his special time with Marianne but I couldn't resist her. We danced, sang and read. Xander loved the books and Marianne (who has been nicknamed Maria) loved the music. She was holding the iPod to her ear and dancing. I got a video that I'll share when I get home.
Bella also loves music and was being so cute with the iPod today. I finally gave in to temptation and bought 1 song just so I could see the kids dancing. Definitely worth it. To see Bella laughing and goofing off is something I would pay so much for. What an angel! I can't wait until she has a family to take her home.
Angel was also a doll today. She was talking a bunch and I got her to laugh. Twice. She also managed to pee all over her outfit and I had to go find her a new one. Which meant she got to wear something on my definition of cute. :)
I had to pack today which was no fun. Angel helped me by laying by my suitcase and talking to me the whole time. I tried to fit her in, but she's to chubby and I think she might suffocate in my bag. I took a record amount of pictures today (around 150). That brings me to a total of around 650 pictures of the babies. And a lot of cute videos.
Grandma is feeling a lot better but still not baby better. She's going to go say good bye to everyone tomorrow, but didn't get to spend her last full day with them.
Oh. And an update on Judy. She has pneumonia too.
Tomorrow we leave for the airport around 10 here. That gives us around 3 hours of babies before we leave. I honestly could stay here for the rest of my life, but knowing that I'm coming back definitely makes it easier to leave. Gillian has promised to email me updates. I miss you all and I guess I'll see you all soon!

Smiles, Laughs, and a Fever

Judy still had a fever today and it got really high. They decided to take her to the hospital. I said good bye to her and gave her a big kiss. She's so sweet. She's a really happy sick baby. And cute. She'll be staying with Bryant and his nanny. That keeps us stocked up on nannies here and she gets to hang out with her buddy. Sounds fun. Darn. I just remembered. Poor Judy will probably get her head shaved. Bryant already has a bad hair cut so no biggie there.
Angel was a doll today like she is every day. I brought her to my room and played with her. She talked a bunch and wouldn't stop. It was way to cute and is going to make leaving harder. And she laughed again tonight. You forest groveians are pretty lucky. I told her I would stay until she laughed again. Guess I'm coming home.
Noah was also smiling a ton for me today. And talking and being a cute little old man. I know Chris was the little old man, but Noah has definitely beat him. These babies get nicknames. Mostly it's cutie or sweetie but we are a little more creative with the guys. :)
I gave Xander his special time today because grandma wasn't feeling to great. We had fishy crackers and played with some of the stuff I bought at the muslim market. Oh. And we played with hats. Hats are so fun to play with. I can play with them for hours. We got a police hat here too which provides a lot of entertainment. Especially when Mila wears it and yells at you. I end of laughing.
I have to blog about lunch because it was plain amazing. We had the chinese version of a burrito. Soooo good. Mila and Chloe had to join me to make sure I didn't eat it all. :) Just imagine the yummiest thing in the world and multiply it by 100. Yep you've got it.
It's hard to think that I have less than two days with the babies. I'm going to miss them so much. I can think of something I'm going to miss about every single baby. I'm not going to go on and on about it now, but if you talk to me when I get home I'd be glad to talk for hours about each baby. :)
Some more things I'm going to miss about here:
1. Having 4 washers and 2 dryers.
2. Watching the security camera. It makes you feel powerful. You know. The "I'm watching you" feeling. :)
3. Skyping people across the world and showing off my angels.
4. Getting to yell NICELY at people when I shop (muslim market). They don't understand I'm not interested and I have to go.
5. Not having to worry about my pants matching my shirt because the babies will cover them in food and spit up with in the next few hours. BTW today I wore by excerise pants and my super nice top. :)
6. Marianne playing peek a boo with me everytime she sees me.
7. Bella telling me to give her a kiss by smacking her lips and then giving me the biggest smile when I give her one.
8. Bella, Isaac, Coco, Chloe, Mila, Kathryn and Charlotte dancing as soon as I turn on music.
9. The food. Duh.
10. Getting chocolate from Amanda's stash. Amanda: you have the best chocolate EVER! :)

Some things I miss about home:
1. my piano
2. My bed
3. My music. Okay the reason why this is so big is because my ipod kind of broke on this trip. It will show you the screen but not play music. I know. It's a million years old, but come on. Couldn't it wait!
4. my sisters

Yeah. I lot more things that I'll miss here. I'm really tempted to miss my flight home. Everyone is telling me I should stay longer or come again real soon and stay for a year. I wish.

Angel is a sleepy head :)

I honestly think that every day here is crazy in its own way. There is no normal when you have 35 babies. I guess if there was a normal it would have to be a pretty crazy one. The weather has totally changed since yesterday. Yesterday was rainy and reminded me a lot of Oregon. Today was sunny and the nannies even took a couple layers off the babies! Every baby got to go on a walk too after naps.
The teachers came again today. This group helps the kids with more serious disabilities that cannot run around. Anna loves them now. When they come my job is to find the baby they need since I've got all of the names down. Xander was pretty upset when the teacher took him to the reading room instead of our room. He kept pointing to our room and Sara had no idea what he wanted until I explained to her that the room is where he gets spoiled with treats and anything he wants.
I gave Angel plenty of lovin' today. We had some tummy time and she was really good about it. She especially loved the patterns on the blanket. She beat Judy, who can't last to long because she still is pretty small. Angel fell asleep in my arms right before lunch. And I ate lunch holding her. And don't forget that I was using chopsticks. Feeling pretty proud of the fact that I didn't spill any of my food or drop her. :) I took her back to her room and laid her down where she slept for the next two hours. Then I went and picked her up once she had her bottle. And she fell straight back to sleep in my arms! That girl sleeps a lot. I decided to not put her back in her crib. Instead I searched until I found a baby sling. Grandma helped me put it on. She slept in it for another 3 hours. The nannies thought the baby sling was the funniest thing ever. I had all of them come over, look at angel, point to the sling and laugh. Yep. I'm the crazy american. One of the nannies even brought her camera over and had to take a picture of me with it on. I put the sling back on tonight and put Judy in it. She loved it! The night nanny hadn't seen me earlier and started cracking up. I guess they don't use baby slings in China. Well... I'm glad to provide entertainment.
Bryant went to the hospital today. He has pneumonia. He'll be in the hospital for a week. I won't see him again this trip. I'm going to miss his smiles that he had for me everytime I walked in the room. Gillian said he already looked better when they left the hospital.
Gillian taught me a card game today called Jacks or Fives. Prepare yourselves. I'm going to teach my sister Elise to cream everyone. :)

Shots+35 kids= lots of tears

Today we fixed up Leo and Noelle's hair. Noelle is now a bald baby and Leo has half a mohawk in the front, which is very chinese. They both get to wear hats all the time now. I'm still pretty sad about Noelle's hair but Leo's is pretty cute. I don't know what I'm going to do if they cut Kay Louise's curls...
Today we had a nurse come in to give all of our babies (minus Mila, Isaac, Angela, and Charlotte (?) ) their shots. Talk about fun. The little babies were really happy and then tortured, but they got over it pretty quickly. I held Angel while she got her's. She cried a bunch and it was very hard to soothe her. I seem to have no problem seeing long needles going into someone but if I see them go into me I freak out. Those needles seriously looked like they would go through the babies' arms. The older kids were much harder than the younger ones because they actually knew that they were about to be tortured. Poor Mila was crying a bunch because she didn't want shots. After 15 minutes of having her traumatized the nurse told us she didn't need any. Yeah. Mila was definitely one of the worse when it came to crying and she didn't even get a shot. :) I was also the one to hold Coco while she was tortured. She only needed one (most of the others needed 2) and she was so upset. When she's sad she likes to cuddle me so we had a little cuddle time before I needed to comfort another baby. I was certain none of those babies would forgive me but after naps they were all happy about it. And the big success today? Ethan prefered me over his nanny and would not go to her. After Coco's nap, which is never that long, we took her out to give her a bath to help with her rash which isn't getting better. Her nanny freaked out because they don't give them baths for 24 hours after the shots here. Weird. We gave her one anyways. :) She had so much fun splashing me. She thought it was hilarious. Me? Not so much.
After her bath I got to skype Charlotte's parents again which was super fun. We brought out the bubbles so they could see how stinking cute she is with them. And then she was using my camera as a phone. We had a few times where she was really interested in her mama and baba. She even told them that she loved them! The nannies here are really curious about the whole skype thing and I always have some crowding me to look at the people who I'm skyping with. Xiao Liu asked me who I was skyping and I said "Charlotte mama and baba". She thought I meant that I'm skyping my parents and am showing them Charlotte. After some more talking she understood and freaked out. She thought it was so cool. Then about 5 more nannies joined her looking over my shoulder and trying to get Charlotte to look at the camera. Too funny. Chloe was being really sweet and telling Charlotte that her mama and baba would take her home and was very excited for her. They all seem to get realy excited about the other kids getting adopted.
Guess what I got for dinner? Baozi! So good. I ate so much of it. Oh my gosh... I could have had them all. :)
Well...I can't wait until I leave in 4 (sad face) days so here are a few things I'm going to miss. There will be more to come. :)
1. Isaac running up to me and giving me a kiss and a hug everytime he sees me
2. Coco telling me what to do all the time
3. Angel smiling at me and talking to me everytime I pick her up
4. All the kids calling me jie jie and Xiao Liu calling me Rachel
5. 24 hour access to little babies

And 5 things I will not miss:
1. the cockroaches
2. poopy diapers
3. having to take my shower between 6 and 9. Not whenever I want.
4. the CROWDED bus
5. not getting to see my friends for 5 weeks!

Miss you all! And I'll see you soon in the US!

Muslim Market and City Wall: check!

Today was an amazingly full day for us. We met Gillian who is an amazing person. She is a nurse that has traveled around volunteering her skills and she has traveled about everywhere. She decided to join Peggy, Grandma and me on our trip to downtown. We made it to the subway where this awesome security guy helped us. Then we forgot what station he said to get off at so we kind of guessed. I got to be in charge of our transportation and bargaining since I'm the only one with China experience. Well until today. We got off at the Zhoung Lou station which is right under the bell tower. We got off and I found the entrance to the muslin market by McDonalds. Yep. I remembered from last trip and am feeling a little bit proud of myself. :) We decided to go to the Xi'an City Wall first once we found the muslim market. It was only a few blocks away. We rented 2 tandem bicycles. Peggy and Gillian on one and Grandma and me on the other. We only had them for 100 minutes so we didn't get to far. Maybe about 1/4 of the way around and back. Peggy and Gillian's bike kept having problems and they ended up walking it for the last little bit. We had these teenage chinese boys that tried helping us but the chain would just fall off after about 10 feet of riding the bike. The muslim market was really fun. Suprisingly enough, we didn't have to do too much bargaining at the beginning. Stuff here can be dirt cheap. Once we got deeper in we had to bargain more. I got a T-shirt for 20 yuan (5 yuan more than the same one I got last trip) that she had tried to sell to me for 125 yuan. My favorite bargain. :) I got some things for the girls, but not that much because we already have quite a few china souvenirs from my last trip. I did find some pretty awesome stuff, but suprises are suprises. Mom: I did get you some frogs, but I think that I'll keep them. :) And I had a first. I got to see them selling canaries who serenaded us our whole entire shopping spree. They were in some pretty cool cages. We made it back home without any problems besides an way to crowded bus. We were all crammed together with no space to move and they let 8 more people on the bus! I got to see some cute chinese kids outside of starfish today. All bundled up in a million layers and then they also have the split pants. What is the point of the layers if you are going to split their pants? I did find some, but didn't get them because I couldn't think of anyone to use them. :)
I got here in time to have 30 minutes with the babies before bedtime. Ethan was crying when I walked in and immediately ran to me and cuddled me for a good 10 minutes. That made my day to have him choose me over his nanny. He is definitely a nanny's boy. Coco had to spend time with me too when she saw me. She starts crying when a nanny comes close to us now because she thinks that they will come to take her away from me. Bryant and Judy got some time out with me too. Judy was talking a bunch which is great. They are both doing so much better. Still little babies but definitely in better health.
The chinese people cooked us an amazing dinner again. Super dooper yummy. They had these strips of potatoes that kind of tasted like hashbrowns. I ate a lot of those.
Good news! So the orphanage said that Kay Louise had a heart and brain problem when they gave her to us. She was checked out and they are pretty sure she doesn't have any heart problems. And Gillian just looked at her and said that she has no symptoms of a brain problem. We might just have a healthy, adorable, Indian/Chinese baby! Definitely excited about that. That only happens every once in a while. I think Joshua and Daniel were the last two (?).
And more good news. I just looked at the itinerary for our flight home and we will only be on the plane for a total of 12 hours! Talk about a short flight!

And they're back!

Today Leo, Trevor, and Noelle came back from their hospital stay. Trevor is back to himself laughing or crying all the time. Super cute. I didn't realize how much I missed him. That's what happens when you just think about waking up in the middle of the night to change a diaper with the kindle being your only light. Not. Fun. They shaved part of Leo's head to put an IV in and it looked pretty bad so we shaved the other side to match. He looks like he kind of has a mohawk now. Noelle also got part of her head shaved and I think we will end up shaving the rest because it look HORRIBLE. I miss their pretty hair. :( They will stay in the sick room for a couple days and then we will "release" them. :) The chinese girls are staying with them tonight.
Peggy moved in with us today because the nurse, Gillian, is coming tonight. It will be super nice having a nurse to turn to for the next 2 months. I'm thinking there will be a lot of medically important changes, so we will probably be super busy.
Today when Karen and Celine were here we decided to do something about Coco's terrible diaper rash. Karen is a nurse and we are pretty sure she has a yeast infection. So Coco got to spend 30 minutes in the bathtub playing with me while we tried to get her all clean to start a new treatment. Usually they get 5 minutes at most in the tub so she loved it. Now she has the split pants and a diaper on VERY loosely. BTW we split the pants ourself. :) She seems a lot happier.
Coco is definitely my girl. She starts laughing and yelling at me as soon as I walk in the door. When she cries she comes to me and wants me to hold her. I'm the only one that can comfort her and now am the only one she lets feed her lunch. I think her nanny will hate me by the time I leave. :) I took Coco outside today to go for a walk. She really enjoyed it and pulled me around for a good 20 minutes. I saw my first pretty insect. Not a cockroach but a BUTTERFLY! It freaked Coco out and I got it to go on my finger to show her that it wouldn't eat her. She still doesn't like them. Oh well. I got her to give me a kiss today. She gave Angel one too. That girl is so sweet. I'm so glad that she's going to a family.
I took Bryant out for some special time today. He was giggling and talking a bunch. Way to cute! He looks so much better, but his legs and arms haven't received the chubness yet. I'm hoping he get's Taylor's nanny. I think she was also Sally's nanny and she sure gets her babies chubby. :)
Angel started smiling and getting all excited when I picked up today. Apparently the xian orphanage nanny, who I LOVE, has been telling her when I come "big sister is coming!". Yeah. I wish I was her real big sister, but being her volunteer big sister will be enough for now. It's kind of funny because whenever I walk in one of the rooms the nannies hand me whatever baby they think is MY baby. In the pink room it's Angel; blue is Coco; red is Bella; and yellow is Bryant. The older kids just follow me and the nannies really can't hand them over. :) I get tons of hugs from Kathryn, Isaac, Chloe and Charlotte daily. What am I going to do without my hugs! Probably die. :) Oh and I got Ethan to run to me and give me a hug. He loves his nanny so this was pretty BIG.
Today I went to the storage room and grabbed a new thing of bubbles to entertain the kids since they were out playing. Megan loved them! She would laugh when they came towards her. Celine was holding her up by her arms and Megan started using her legs to bring herself closer to the bubbles. This is BIG because she has CP and usually doesn't do things like this. Charlotte wanted to blow the bubbles so bad. I finally let her and it was adorable! She was a pro. She started calling them "fwa fwa" because that's the sound she makes when she blows them. Soon I had Angela, Coco, Mila and Charlotte all wanting turns blowing the bubbles. Soon the bubble container was half empty and I had bubbles on my pants and shirt. I'll bring them out again for sure. And this time get pictures.
Okay so the exciting news is: I finally am able to actually blog from china and not have to email it to my mom so she can do it for me! Shang came and did her magic and the awesome computer started working! So I've been checking everyone's blogs and stuff. I was able to show off my sisters to Xue Ting and Shang. BTW girls they think you are adorable and look like me. Except Autumn and Chloe apparently don't look like me. :) They saw the pictures on my blog from my last trip and asked who gave them to me. They apparently didn't know about my prrevious trip and Shang kept telling me it was a "pity" that we didn't get them to her before some of the kids' adoptions. And the CD is MIA so she is pretty determined to find it. I LOVE Shang!
I could talk forever about each day, but I'll limit my stories so I have some for after. I'm trying to think of the 10 things I'll miss most and it's super hard. Maybe I'll have it figured out by the time I leave.
And before I forget... HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMANDA! Amanda is my life hero and I hope she had the best birthday ever!

Miss you all!