Visit to the countryside

This morning we went out to see an outlying agricultural community. It was about an hour or so by bus. The farm land was in a valley with steep mountains on both sides. What amazed me most was that people in China come here to vacation. Makes me appreciate our vacations all the more.

A Very Special Happy Halloween

Nana, Thanks for the great pictures!

96 Hours with Little Man

96 hours and only more to learn about our little man:

1. Loves his stroller- eats, sleeps, cruising around
2. Playing fetch (he throws his toys, Mommy fetches)
3. Likes tomato Pringles
4. Dinner is his favorite meal (Noodles)
5. Can't eat enough watermelon
6. Loves to people watch- esp. pretty girls
7. Did I mention his wicked temper
8. Closes his eyes and puffs out his cheeks when he's angry (hilarious)
9. Understands a lot more then he lets on
10. Future member of the Red Sox Toy Throwing Team - Starting Pitcher

Happy Halloween

...and Happy Anniversary to us. In the spirit of Halloween, we all broke our orange shirts. Kate even pulled out the Halloween socks. The hotel, the resturant had a themed buffet - cool and creative (and yes, some dishes _were_ scary!!) The cakes were delicious. Later, Claire went Trick or Treating to all the adoptive parent doors.

Buddhist Temple

Today we visited a beautiful Buddhist temple. Buddhism is practiced by 70% of the people in China. Taoism and Christianity are also popular. The temple we visited is well regarded in China, Taiwan and elsewhere. People come from all over to burn incense and praise the Buddha. There are many different forms of Buddhism. However no matter what form you practice the main purpose is to become a better person and seek peace. This temple definately brought peace to everyone in our travel group.

Fuzhou Panda World

Today we went to a research institute for the giant panda. The giant panda is considered one of the national treasures of China, a living fossil. There were 5 giant pandas there and many lesser pandas.
It seemed the institute has the best interests of the Panda at heart, but still it was difficult to see such an animal in that captive environment. We saw three giant pandas and a bunch of red pandas. The red pandas looked like big raccoons. We even saw a "Panda Show" - it was really a red panda following a stick. Hmmmm... Noah was so captivated he fell asleep.

Fujian Friends

On our last trip to China, we were the only Holt family traveling that week so we were a travel group of ... one. Being new parents of twins, we had the guide and staff all to ourselves. We thought that was just great. On this trip there were 5 families all together. Three of us went onto Fuzhou, while the other two went somewhere else. We're really enjoying having other families to go out with and the kids love playing together. Here are some pictures of our new friends Lynn and Bob with their son Ty and Linda and Tom with daughters Claire (5) and Abby.

48 Hours with Noah

One can learn a lot about someone is 48 hours. Here's just some of he things we've learned about our little man:

1. Cutest smile
2. Loves to have his belly tickled
3. Know how to shake his head no (we see that a lot)
4. He can crawl (when he thinks no one is looking)
5. Awesome sleeper- sleeps for 12-13 hours a night + a 2 hour nap
6. Hates the hotel room- needs to be out and about looking at things
He actually cries when we walk down the hall to our room
7. His musical drum is his favorite toy
8. Good arm- likes to throw his ball
9. He has a wicked temper
10. Very big set of lungs

That's just a start. There are many many more great things to come.

Noah Li Ming Bower

After checking in we had 10 minutes to turn around and get ourselves in order before we had to meet in the elevator lobby to go do the paperwork and meet our Noah in person! The whole group went together to the conference room and there were all the kids with their caretakers and other staff. It was a bit of chaos and crying while the paperwork began and the children meet new faces (who don't look at all like anyone they knew!) Noah had the shortest trip of the three babies being adopted. His orphanage is an hour and a half away. Noah's doctor, nurse, and caretakers came to meet us. They were very nice and provided us with food, diapers, new clothes, and gifts for the family. We were given an album with pictures of the orphange, staff, his bed, and friends. They also gave us earth from his orphange. Not sure what to do with the earth- afraid to bring it home. ( No need to get arrested on the way back to US.) Fortunately for us there were no tears and Noah came to Mama without any trouble. As long as the sweet potato puffs kept coming he was a happy boy. Noah seems to really like being held by his new MaMa and even managed a few smiles. He has the sweetest smile!!!!! The only tears were when BaBa held him! We did the paperwork and Noah signed too. We went back to our room and tried to have milk and some other things to eat but our little man was beat. Tomorrow some more official details are to be taken care of - after breakfast of course.