Rose Mei: Half way home

Lillian and Kari entertaining Rose.

Savannah joins the party.

Tracie with Savannah and Donna with Ella

The Koehn family with baby Kimi

The Lund family with baby Arianna

Tracie and Savannah

Kevin and Rose waiting for the medical exam

Still waiting

"Nice nails, Nurse lady!"

Getting measured

"This is fun!"

Waiting at the passport office. Playing with Savannah

Ella catching up on some lost ZZZZZ's

Rose and the gang (clockwise from Rose's left is Savannah, Arianna, and Ella)

Sisters having fun in the hotel room

This is my favorite toy: my green, yellow and red cup. All the other babies love it too!

Good morning! Today was a great day, especially since we are now more than half way through our trip and will be home in 9 more days! Rose was a very happy baby today. Everyday, you can see great progress in all of the babies and the lights in their eyes get brighter and brighter. Rose smiled alot today and almost laughed several times. She babbled alot and tends to make raspberry sounds with her mouth when she's happy. She mimics us when we wave to her and when we stick our tongues out at her. Actually, when she's really happy, she tends to stick her tongue out alot (especially when she catches a glimpse of her bottle). Have I told you that the girl likes to eat? If I haven't already, let me just tell you the girl likes to eat! She's really coming around and things keep getting better day by day. We had our medical exam required by the U.S. Consulate today. All the babies did exceptionally well. Actually, I think Rose actually thought it was kind of fun. They measured and weighed her, checked her ears, nose, and throat, and examined her body for any defects. It was pretty simple, but is usually pretty scary for some of the babies. When we took Lillian's group to get their exams 7 years ago, the noise in the room from the crying babies was deafening. This time, not so much. Rose didn't cry at all. She was very good. From there, we went and applied for her passport. That was a very simple process with the exception that we had to wait in the lobby for a hour prior to our appointment. Some babies napped, some played, some ate, and some got a little fussy, but overall it wasn't too bad. We finished the night off with a hallway party where we ate some Papa John's Pizza. It was soooooooo good! Nothing like a little taste of home when you're half a world away. For those of you not familiar with a hallway party, basically it is how it sounds. The rooms are not big enough to host everyone, so we gather in the open area at the end of our halls so the babies can play and we can socialize. It's a great place for all of us adoptive families to bond. It was a great time. Well, Rose is now out cold and both Lillian and Michelle are really close to joining her, so I had better wrap this up. Enjoy the pics!