On the Way home ...

its a bit cold here.....

Final post - this blog was entitled Waiting for Nelly and now she is here in ST J Road....she is still adorable currently pushing her baby walker round the kitchen and laughing to herself after eating a lunch of pasta, chicken and tomatoes...raisins, bananas and Fruit Compote...!

here are some images from her first few days in London..

I would like to thank everyone for reading this and for all your lovely texts emails and calls of support - it has been the most wonderful experience of our lives and glad we could have shared it with so many friends...looking forward to introducing you to Nelly in the near future.....

louise rob and nelly norton!

I like my bath now!

Reading at breakfast....

Off to work ....

So this is home...where are all the waitresses? haven't you got a lift ....

Nelly asleep in the skycot - a rare ocurrence during the thirteen houf flight! apart from falling out while looking at me!

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Daddy- enjoying Borat..he did laugh a lot !
on the plane .......

Last Day in Hong Kong

Happy SHoppers....

I could get the tsate for this ! 41st floor living...

My last sleep in Hong Kong before the long flight home....

Star Ferry or the MTR....????



Kung Hey Fat Choi...great new year of the pig......





Just near the hotel room .........nice ...




WAKE UUUPPPPP >>>>............



WOW where are we .....?







OK so that is Hong Kong.......!




My first trip on an underground..!




Hold tight please....




A light Dim SUm luch with my friend Mei....




Followed by music from a violin quartet...




and a little afternoon shopping........



Busy packing ...almost done - hardest thing to do is to work out what to feed her and pack when - ! She has such a large appetite that she will eat most things but is always hungry...

woke up early this morning and Nelly loved sitting on the windowsill looking down from the 41st floor onto HK...an amazing view...

Breakfast - in the far corner of the dining room away from the business people..but as usual she made friends with lots of waiters..! then back to the room to get ready for the day - We took the MTR to Kowloon and shopped along the Nathan Road..then met with Jane and Paul and their little girl Mei for lunch see picture

sorry all thepics are a bit disjpinted but I was halfway through posting this in HK and lost the connection so have had to wait until we got home to complete the blog...!

Pictures from Nelly's last day in CHina

Pictures that I did not manage to post last night....quite an emotional time leaving China yesterday we arrived so excited and nervous to meet her - enjoyed all the time we were there and are now taking her away from her country and culture...

Another moving day ...



Nelly with her favourite waitress Tami at breakfast....




Strictly Chinese Dancing




Another hilarious sign....spitting prohibited are we in the right country!





Tai Chi in the park



Rob and Nelly at the infamous White Swan




Nelly with the waitress at the Thai restaurant where we bought her congee most evenings



Nelly getting active at Guangzhou airport




Nelly checks in to the 41st floor of the Renaissance Harbour View





Daddy checks into Room Service!

Day...February 1st - last stage of journey....left Guangzhou, arrived HK

sorry guys no photos this evening....not sure in which suitcase to find the cables!

Rob went off to get the visa this morning at 8 so I spent the morning doing breakfast ...final shopping and real haggling in the last few hours before making a dash to the supermarkets to get Nelly the Rice Milk that we mix with her formula - we will change what she eats when she gets back as the Chinese formula is full of sugar...but hey at the moment it is easier to keep with it just like the dummy!

I then raced back through the scorpion market in time to say goodbye to Julia and Tim and family, it was so special to have spent really precious moments with them these last few days and we hope to see them and their lovely boys on Nelly's birthday party ..

so then we were off to the airport to check in for our 6 30 flight, she crawled all around the gate ...exhausted herself chomped on yet another teething biscuit....,the flight was packed and we were all prepared with food and milk to feed to Nelly on the way up - she was fine after the milk even though we finished that before take off! but then because the flight was only 40 minutes once we were up ... we were on our way down and that was when the trouble started! scream ...scream ...scream ... she did...but then fell fast asleep on my shoulder and did not wake until we got into a cab in Hong Kong!

checked into the hotel at about 9 with our small sleeping baby and we had our room upgraded to one on the top floor with a fabulous harbour view straight across to Kowloon . Nelly slept in the buggy for an hour while we ate our room service supper...

She is still the most adorable baby - God I bet you are getting bored of reading that but it is true!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow - up for breakfast and then the day pottering around Kowloon etc ...the view from opur room is fab and Nelly loves lights so she is in for a treat tomorrow night! then a long flight home....

a demain .....

Day Nine - PENULTIMATE DAY

Getting used to this bath thing...OK a bit small but I will learn to like the real bath one day soon!



So hot today - I had to get this sunhat only 5 yuan all of 35 pence!



Just because she is ....



OFFICIAL - she has a PRC passport






I want get to my new home too - .....


HURRAH ...we love China, loved our time here but BOY are we ready to go home ( as our American friends in the hotel would say! )

Nelly slept OK last night and I slept really well ...apologies for lack of service the last few nights it caught up with me - she had an early night and then woke at 6 and I put her in bed with me for an hour...she kept losing her dummy in the night as it fell out of the cot - so first thing on the list on Saturday on the way home are Cot bumpers.. ( she has also just screamed because her leg was caught in the bars...we now have made makeshift cot bumper out of the duvet.. When we got back from dinner I popped out to collect the final bag of laundry and by the time I got back Rob had got the Wriggle Monster out of her clothes, into her baby gro and asleep in bed - in about 12 minutes!

Today was the day to collect Nelly's passport but also the designated day to get the packing done..so Rob took Nelly out for the morning and did what all proud Dads do and spent money on her - he bought five dresses and a pair of shoes and still got change out of a twenty quid note! I completed the visa application with the guide and swore that she has never been involved in an act of terrorism or a member of a terrorist organisation!!! ( who in their right minds would answer in the affirmative if applying for a British Visa! )

We then took ourselves over the bridge to Sam's shop to see the fakes he had lined up for us...a lovely guy and we bought a few things... all very happy with our purchases - a great Gucci Baby Bag...and few other bits for Rob and I ....sorry for all those who asked us to buy them things but there is only so much space and well you can get flights to HK these days for £299 and the train is only an hour to Guangzhou for all of £18!!!!

We discovered a great little shop today run by a UK charity called Good Rock and all the profits form the shop go to an orphanage in Guangzhou - lovely stuff and we truly stocked up knowing that the money is going to a good cause, had to avoid the numerous shop owners, who purport to being our best friends and our baby the cutest they have ever seen to get there but really worth it, they also have a website
some beautiful things and we managed to add to the pile of things that we are buying for Nelly to give as presents on either adoption day or her birthday _ I think probably the former as this will be January 24th which is the date the adoption became official, we will celebrate her life and also remember her China Mummy and Daddy so seems like a good time to give gifts that we bought during our stay in China.

We had dinner with the other family we have spent time with here who were with us on the day we met Nelly and they met their little girl Isabelle, we went to the local Thai restaurant and had a nice meal, although Nelly tires herself out so much every day by crawling in the room, pulling herself up against the bed, trying to walk and generally laughing, joking and mimicking other people must use up a lot of energy..so she was very grizzly...but still managed to eat a whole bowl of congee..

Anyway Rob is off for the visa tomorrow at 8 so I will finish off the packing and do some last minute shopping before leaving the Victory Hotel at 3 for the airport...

May not get to post tomorrow night as not sure what time we will get to the hotel ...

catch you soon

We're all going to the zoo .....



OKJ so whats the big deal with all these animals...!







Organised trip this morning with the guide and some of his other clients - a nice group mostly LA / San Fransisco and we went to the zoo ,by the time we got there most of the girls were asleep...but it was fun see images above - dead tired again tonight, had a monster nose bleed at 4 in the morning for about half an hour so really pooped! Following the zoo trip we had lunch with the couple on our right from San Fransisco, they are staying at our hotel rather than the White Swan we had great fun with them and their little girl Rosalie - Mellick's grandmother was called Nelly so she loved her !



Not shopping again Daddy...! we needed teething biscuits for madame so headed over the bridge to real china...also managed to wander around a weird mall and discover some great fake places - going back tomorrow to look at more stuff- lovely Gucci Baby bag!



looking experienced already!


off to bed - sorry for lack of text...tomorrow is packing and we have a schedule...Rob also has to collect Nelly's passport and thrn we need to comeplete the Via Application - with the joke questions such as - have you ever been a member of a terrorist orgsanisation!!!!!!!