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.

Sightseeing in Guangzhou, more photos of Emmaline

Until today, we'd opted out of sightseeing partly out of fatigue, partly because unlike most of the other adoptive parents here, we not only had one young child, but three. However, since we're returning to the U.S. on Wednesday, it was our last chance to go with the travel group out to see sights. Today's itinerary included a visit to a folk art museum situated in the "Chen Clan Temple" and a teahouse where we could sample tea. The former was interesting, as it was an open space museum, with courtyards of bronze sculptures as well as more traditional art such as vases and wood carvings. We found especially well-done hand embroidered art (photo below) of various sceneries and subjects (including the current Premier of China).

First, though, some photos of our lovely daughter hanging out in her crib:









As you might infer from the last photo, she has begun to warm up to the boys. When at first she joined us, she would cry when they'd come up to her, even if they tried to be gentle. However, today she grinned when either of them started to play with her. So we're sure that before long they'll be great friends! In addition, we've begun exclusively feeding her American-made formula that we brought. She has been taking in huge portions (7-9 ozs. per feeding), so we're really encouraged by that. Lois' brother Tim says he even thinks her cheeks look a bit fuller than a week ago when we got her.

Here are some photos taken today at the museum / former temple, including an example of the embroidery that I mentioned above:







After the museum, we went to a "tea house" about 10 minutes from the hotel. Here were offered numerous kinds of teas as well as accessories such as teapots -- some fancy, some simple. All overpriced, IMO, but then, we come from the SF Bay Area, where such items are commonplace and easy to acquire. In addition, we were able to sample a few different kinds of teas. The only drawback to this portion was that the teas were made with local tap water (boiled), which has a bit of an unpleasant taste to those of us accustomed to filtered water back in the U.S. Nonetheless, the experience was enjoyable, and it was good to get out of the hotel and spend time with our travel group. One funny part was when a group of us sat down for the tea ceremony/service, the translator looks at me—I'd asked a few questions in Chinese—and said (in Chinese), "You translate for me, okay?" Ha ha...

Here's a few photos, the first of which is us with the Jang family, who hail from south S.F. and who we knew from previously getting together back home:







These last two photos are our first actual full-family photo, taken in front of the museum. As a likely harbinger of future photo opportunities, none of the kids are smiling or looking at the camera <grin>. The latter is of our little lady in her carseat:





Also, lest I neglect our previously added kids, check out a video of our dear Andrew, who's been so cute this whole trip, as he's demonstrated how much he comprehends of what we say. In this little video, I caught him walking in circles around the base of a lamp in our room. When we realized that he was on camera, he started to walk away! And then I said (in Chinese), "No, keep turning!"... which he did! What a cutie!

(UPDATE: the incorrect permissions on the above video have been fixed, it should be accessible now)

Tomorrow, our guides will be taking our paperwork to the U.S. Consulate to apply for our children's visas on our behalf. In the afternoon, we go visit Shamian Island, which should be nice. Tuesday will be relaxing and packing to prepare to head home on Wednesday (yay!).

In closing, the Lord has been very faithful to our family this week. Many of the families, including ours, has had some sort of ailment, whether diarrhea, colds, etc. But in spite of this, we've all been in pretty good spirits. Thanks be to God who cares for us and guides us in His will.