I was kissed by a cute Asian girl, and my wife was okay with it....

I am obviously talking about my Julia. Last night we were sitting on the couch, waiting for Julia to get tired enough to go to bed, and I am holding her up(she is getting stronger, she likes trying to stand, brings a big smile to her face) and she opens her mouth into a cute little circle and moves forward and presses them against my mouth. Now if it had just happened that one time I would attribute it to a lack of balance, but she did it another 3-4 times. Needless to say, I was a teary mess, all while trying to keep a normal face in front of her, so she didn't think something was wrong(my face gets all scrunchy and flushed when I cry- not a pretty sight LOL).

This morning the girls are sitting at the table and Julia has hiccups, so what does Katie do? She starts imitating the sound, making Julia start giggling and cracking up the whole table.Such fun(although neither girl got much breakfast into them, fun was had by all)!

We had a nice visit with my mom who came up with my cousin for a few days to celebrate Christmas and get to know Julia a bit. We are laying low for New Years(especially after a short sleep night last night, Julia took forever to go down and then Katie was awake at 4 due to her fever going up a bit, she had it yesterday and within 4 hours we knocked it down and she was running around. Hopefully everyone will normalize soon.

Katie is a good big sister, a little possessive of us at times, but LOVES her Julia and it is mutual.Julia's eyes light up and follow her big sis everywhere. We are so thankful to my sister and brother in law for looking after Katie, they did such a great job. Katie is clingy(not surprising). Gonna be hard when Daddy has to go to work next week, for both Katie and me!

First family outing today. The four of us are going to do a bit of grocery shopping. Weather is COLD, but Cara needs to get out and Grande Prairie needs to get used to the Burtis' clan invading their world LOL!

Crazy times

Got back, the flights were easy(other than Julia blew her diaper right as we took off with diarrhea), but she is doing well, overall. She has an irritation on one of her cheeks/eye, not sure what that is. I ended up sleeping decently on the 23rd, then stayed up(not my choice, the body and brain wouldn't shut down) the entire next night and day, but that seemed to reset my sleep pattern, and got my Jan 2 sermon done in the wee hours of Christmas day morning. Caught the 24 hour stomach bug once home, but one advantage of having a high metabolism/hyper bowel, is that bug didn't have a chance,  12 or so hours and it was gone. Yahoo. Had great time with family for holidays, still absorbing the China time, will  hopefully have time in early 2011 to reflect on it. Met great folks, enjoyed our travel group, have and treasure of a new daughter...

In Vancouver!!!

We made it! Flight went quick, got thru the immigration and custom hoops with NO problem, our Girl is now home and a Canadian citizen!

We catch a flight to Edmonton in an hour. Julia is doing great, despite still having the runs a bit, but she is also absorbing some of her bottle and cereal, so it will be good to get home, bath, clean clothes and try to sleep!

Good byes

Julia's tummy was still upset, so mom and her stayed at the hotel, I went to the Acrobat show, it was REALLLY good, not Circe de Soleil good, but VERY, VERY good.

Julia is still dealing with the runs, but we are packed up, extra clothes to change her on the plane,and in an hour we head out to drive to the airport, then around supper time here, we board a plan to Vancouver. Once there we have to go thru immigration then wait for our connecting flight to Edmonton, there is a few hours inbetween, but we hope there are no major delays, I would much rather have time to kill in a terminal than be dashing thru an airport in a panic with lots of carry on baggage and baby...

My pocket is full of animal balloons to use at ticket counters, and check ins to "brighten" their days and hopefully keep us moving. I have tried to be the first through the lines with our group to check in so that I can do the balloons. We never got any of our bags weighed so far, and we had our in-china luggage definitely overweight. Not sure if the balloons worked or not, but, regardless I like doing it and bringing smiles to their faces.

It has just been the last 3-4 days I have felt adjusted to China time, not sure what to expect with jet lag, but it will be all good.

We are ready to go, and be our family of 4, but the time has been amazing. So many "ups" and the downs(sickness, no Great Wall, and not able to visit orphanage) have not been anything we will regret or has been too much of a downer. God is GOOD.

Now to engage the plane trip....

T Square and Forbidden City

Today was an odd day. first, it is our last full day here.I found by the end of this excursion I was feeling quite emotional about the fact we would be leaving. We soooo want to be home, we are missing Katie soooooo much and my Brother and Sister in Law are AMAZING in taking care of her, they have been such a gift to us, but it is time to become our family of 4. It was also odd in that I did the stuff today solo. Julia had a huge diaper blow out at breakfast time, so we decided to keep her in and I would go. It was cold and windy today, for that alone, was a good decision. She is certainly wiped out. I got back from the 9:30-1:30 jaunt and she had napped 2 time already and is still sleeping, so it was a good call. LONG time in the airplane tomorrow, hope she will be runs free...
Me in T Square.

Guards training in the security areas between T Square and Forbidden city
Entering Forbidden City.






One of the thrones inside one of the MANY buildings.

First sights upon entering Imperial Gardens in forbidden city. Some trees well over 300 years old!!!


More from Garden.

Forbidden city is quite a sight to behold, we only covered about half of it, it is a city within the city, MASSIVE, so many stories about what happens in there, what certain things stand for, ceremonies attached to each area...so rich in history...

On our way out Dave(one of the dads) was bartering for a book and the polic came by to tell the busker to leave, Dave got the book, then I went to get one and the Police said no, so we went to leave then out of no where there is shouting and the buskers husband??? comes up and slaps the police officer and yelling and screaming. I am not sure if I got it on tape or not, I ran my battery dry with all the footage of the day so I haven't uploaded yet, it is recharging, but 3 police came and were restraining him... so an eventful end to the trip.I did get a book a few minutes later and other busker came by, tried to short be 10 Yuan in my change, so we had a little talk, and I got all my change, he then tries to sell me another book...despite the language barrier he understood what I said, I wasn't buying again from someone who tries to cheat me. I played it up saying to him, "You insult me with your rude actions, Me no buy again from you" all played with a hurt and disgusted look on my face. Heh it was fun. Overall they are pushier in some areas more than others, but are harmless, and it is fun,mostly...

Tonight we get Julia's visa, hopefully take in a show, sleep and then the trip home!!! can't wait to be with family, jet lag and all and celebrate Christmas with them!

Silk Factory and Pearl Market, plus some fun party times

What a full day. We started out by going to the Silk factory and we learned about the the life of a silk worm and got to see how they processed the silk and made silk comforters etc as well as see amazing silks. The quality is so nice, we ended up buying some gifts for the girls and family there, I was excited to find one that I will use in my magic act. I am working on Bian Lian, Chinese Opera Face changing trick. And this will become part of that act, so I was jazzed.We also got a couple of silk comforters and top line silk duvet covers(matching) for the girls beds,this was an unexpected purchase, but will be a lasting memory as well as serve a practical function as they are easy to clean and warm.


Old style silk spinning device.



After that we went to the pearl market. Cara and Julia went off shopping and Doug and his daughter and myself went across the street to take in the Temple of Heaven area. Got lots of video. This wasn't part of the trip, but there was no need for both of us to shop and Cara barters well and got some great quality pearls we will gift our daughters with when they get married. The smog was terrible this day, my throat was burning by the end of the day and we did a bunch of walking at the Temple, and we only covered about a quarter of it in an hour and a half, and we were moving. It was cool in we saw some locals doing what we would call Chinese line dancing, and took in some great sights.It will be nice to share this video with the family and it is another of China's cultural attractions so it was a nice bonus.

Julia enjoyed being out at the meal too!


Picture from the other night when we went to get Hot Pot for supper. She was happy to be there!

Eating at the Goodbye China party. We had the party a day early as Yulin was leaving a day early, it usually happens on the last full day.
We had some nice sweet and sour pork, some tasty beef and asparagus dish and Peking duck wraps.


It was a long day as we then went out for lunch, took in another market(which really wasn't necessary imo, it just made for too long a day). We had a bus load of cranky kids and hungry. Julia did awesome, but we packed enough to provide 2 bottles plus cereal to eat, other families weren't as prepared. We had been told half a day out, but it pays to be prepared. At 4:20 we got back to the hotel, she crashed, we then went out for the good bye China supper. Then there was a magic show, which was all done with music in the background, as there is an obvious language barrier. It was fun, the older kids there enjoyed it, it was all pretty basic magic shop dealer stuff, but it was fun. Yulin then asked me to come up and I did a couple of things for the group which was really fun and figured that was the highlight of the day for me, but wait!!! I looked up at the balcony in the restaurant after we had eaten some Bday cake and saw a fellow dressed in Chinese Opera robes and FACE Changing gear. NO WAY, get to see it live, OH YEAH!!!Front row seat , 7 feet from it, it was great. Really motivated me to get home and finish my practice of it so I can perform it. I am one of only a select few Westerners to be able to perform this long kept secret performance art. Got me pic taken with him after. Fun night, but a LOOOONG day.

Thumbs up. Magic is awesome!

Summer Palace

Us just inside the Summer Palace.



Some of the over 40,000 DIFFERENT pictures along the longest corridor in the world.


Concrete boat, part of the history of this place.


In the summer palace.
Lady who gifted Julia with the hat. She took quite a liking to our little Jewel!
Mom and Babe, reading together.

Been a bit since I posted. We had a couple of lazy days, Cara caught a 24 flu bug, it has been going around our group and needed some time to recover, so we opted out of the Great Wall visit. The next day we hung around, did a trip to the mall, got a few groceries and did a McDonalds lunch.

Last nite we had a meltdown, Julia was crying HARD in her sleep. We had had a great day with her, and I believe it was just part of her grieving her loses as she continues the process of bonding and attaching to us, it is good to know what the reasons are, but it broke my heart to see her little heart in pain. We will see how tonite goes. She ahs been sleeping in bed with Cara, we have twin beds int he room, and I know that is really comforting for her, and helps the bonding process also.

Today, Monday, was the Summer Palace visit in the afternoon.It would be gorgeous in the summer, when all the plants were in bloom, but I enjoy looking at the trees as they have so much character, as they "train" as well as trim the trees so you get beautiful shapes. I love bonsai trees, and still hoping I can see some before we leave...time will tell.

The street vendors are really pushy here, and it is one of the places where counterfeit money is used, the vendors will give you fake money for change from purchases or switch out your bill and say it is no good and actually give you not good money back. My magician spirit was roused and I so wanted to see if we could find one who would do this as I had a fun trick up my sleeve to change money, in front of their eyes to something else, but alas I never got the opportunity to do it.

We draw a crowd where ever we go in public, and one group of 3 ladies took a shine to Julia and ended up buying her a panda hat from a vendor, very sweet, I make her a balloon teddy bear as a token of thanks.

We misheard instructions and thought we could venture off on our own, so we did, but we were supposed to stay with the group, so they sent Faye off to find us(sorry group, but we had fun exploring...).
It was a lot of fun and so much history. I live that about China they have such interesting history and culture.

We were able to go out with our group for supper together and had hot pot( I have had it a bunch in Canada, I don't know why I didn't think to ask about it here, to see if we could get it, as it would be safe food for us...) so that was fun and I broke out the balloon animals and made some for some of the kids who were in the restaurant and for our travel group. Had a blast, totally my element!

Tomorrow is a visit to the silk factory( I can't wait) and the pearl market(Cara is excited!), we then have a "birthday" party in the evening. They have hired a magician and we will have food, etc, should be fun, interested to see what HE has up his sleeve.

It was really nice to get out of the room and explore, and I love walking through the historical areas of China and soaking in the culture, which we could spend more time and more relaxed time doing that. Julia travels well, and is soooo happy and enjoys soaking everything in.

Posting video from Nanchang just before gotcha moments

At the mall in Nanchang. Daddy with Julia in Carrier

Some video from Nanchang