Welcome to Emmaline Anne Ding's adoption website. This blog details our family's adoption of this beautiful little girl from China in 2005. While the focus of the blog is to record our trip to China, you can also find more about her adoption by clicking on the links to the right.

Familiar Friends in a Foreign Land

It so happens that our adoption trip overlaps with that of our friends Andy & Grace Dao who are visiting family in Hong Kong. Though they only live about 10 minutes from us back home, we arranged beforehand to try to get together while in Hong Kong.

So last night, even though we were all still fatigued, we got together for dinner. They and their 2 year old boy are still adjusting to local time here, despite having arrived 3 days prior. Yet in spite of weariness, it was fun to be with friends so far from home -- especially since we don't speak the dominant Chinese dialect here in Hong Kong (Cantonese). To the left is a photo of us last night at a restaurant a couple of blocks from our hotel.

Everyone ate well, except our little Andrew. We had to wake both of the boys up to leave for the restaurant. They were both "out cold" as our friends arrived at the hotel (see right). Andrew's waking however was temporary: as we settled into the restaurant, he conked right out and slept straight through dinner as Lois had him comfortably tucked into the baby sling.

Last note: It's 3:30am Hong Kong time and I'm blogging from our room (the hotel wireless router appears to be two floors directly underneath us, so I get a weak but usable signal)! But that means it's 12:30pm California time... so the kids are also awake right now & playing behind me.... here's to long days. =-)