Lights, Camera, Chaos

The Red Couch picture is a tradition in Chinese adoption for adoptive parents staying at the White Swan. The goal is to line up all the babies on the White Swan's red couch and let the parents snap a few pictures.

Now in reality there are many red couches on the 2nd floor lobby of the White Swan. When we were lining up our darlings on one red couch, another travel group was doing the same about 100 yards from us. Second, the White Swan red sofa can hold -- at best -- 8 babies (and that's packed like sardines). Our group had 16. So parents of some of the girls propped them up like hand puppets on the back and sides of the sofa. Finally, anyone knows taking a picture of 2 children is tough. It's a lucky shot that has both children looking at the camera and smiling. OK, now multiply that by a factor of 8 -- you try getting 16 babies to look into the lens and smile.

Here's the photo (Libby Doodle Doo is in the front row, 2nd from right in blue with -- you guessed it -- sucking her thumb):

Like her big sister Little Zo Peep 4 years ago, my Libby Doodle Doo holds the distinction of being the first of the babies to break rank and start crying. Once she turned on the waterworks, the photo op was over. One by one other babies began to melt down.

We arrived at the Red Couch location before any of the other parents. While waiting, we got an opportunity to take some solo shots of the Doodle queen:

Good times, good memories. Tomorrow is our consulate appointment (our LAST step) and then we're off to Hong Kong and then home on Thursday.