Last Call !

Well... it has been a crazy and surreal journey as we find ourselves typing our last post. We finalized the adoption today and took the oath at the US Consulate this afternoon. Tomorrow will be filled with packing and last minute shopping as we prepare to depart first thing on Thursday ( Wed in US ) morning.




When we came back to the room we got an interesting surprise. The hotel gave every baby a going back home Barbie doll. It is a white woman with a little asian baby in front!! I have never seen such a thing. Made us all laugh. I am absolutely positve that this is a 100% Mattel product and was not a knock off made here in China...... grin.


Janice, Alex, Lauren and I want to take a minute to sincerely thank everyone for all the kind notes and comments we have received over the past two weeks. When we first decided to produce this blog ( idea stolen from Pete and Brenda Lush) we thought that there would be a dozen or so people that would be interested in tracking our stream of consciousness and random thoughts. To our delight it appeared that we had many, many more visitors than we had anticipated. We are indeed fortunate to have so many great friendships and feel lucky to have Leah grow up within in such a special community of friends and family. Thanks to all !







Yes, but now..... 100% American as well.




Peace.

The Red Couch

In the time honored tradition of all the adoption families traveling through the White Swan... today was picture day on the famous Red Couch! Absolutely hilarious trying to get 7 babies propped up on a couch and facing the same way and if at all possible not screaming.



All the babies were born between March and May 2009 and they are as follows left to right: Molly, Mei-Li, Allison, Isabella, Teagan, Leah and Lela. I would be remiss not to point out that Leah TOWERS over the bunch! Here is one of the whole crew:



Leah and Mei-Li had to show off their new butterfly spring loaded hair accessories. They are on these little spring things that you pull apart, place on their hair and let go and the spring grabs what little hair they have. Leah and Mei-Li are the most "hair challenged" of the bunch!



Found out from the Consulate this morning that all our paperwork is in order and all our fees are paid and we will get Leah's Visa to leave on Wednesday! That was really the last hurdle as far as the bureaucracy goes.... now it's just waiting for Wednesday for final papers.



Today we had time to go do some shopping and started off in the "Pearl Markets". Now, any description I can come up with to describe this place is going to fail in comparison to what it actually is but..... Imagine Washington square stacked on top of itself 4 times. Now imagine EVERY store in the entire mall was a store filled to the brim with every type of pearls, gem stones, semi precious stones, etc and you can begin to understand. The picture above shows the levels and the escalators... and the shops on each level are like 3 or 4 deep going back. All pearls. It is the Whole sale market for the surrounding provinces including Guangdong. I'm not sure if Janice has stopped giggling yet...... Yes, she and Lauren made out fine.





After the pearl markets we made our way through a large outdoor pedestrian mall and found this incredible DVD store. Just about every movie and current new release known to man. We ended up with about 20 movies and paid just under $40. It was like $2 a piece!! Good news is that we jump started our new Disney and Pixar DVD collection for Leah. All of our old ones were on VHS when Alex and Lauren were young.

Oh! I forgot.... Alex and I found this small shop by the White Swan with this little lady in the back who is a seamstress. She took us in the back and showed us bolts and bolts of silk fabrics with all different colors and designs. We got to pick out any one we wanted and she is making us custom fit pajama lounge pants and boxers! I'm pretty excited about that... it is hard to find these long enough for either one of us.

We decided to walk back to the hotel from the markets and ended up in the middle of neighborhood free markets. First was pets and animals and then into this crazy Turkish bizarre type thing that I mentioned yesterday with the dried goods. literally 1000's of these little shops, street after street. bizarre.

Tomorrow we go and take the Oath at the US consulate that will make Leah a US citizen when we land in San Francisco on Thursday. Plus, figure out how we are going to get all these new purchases home !

Guagnzhou Day 2!

Yes.... she smiles! Only took us a week to get a picture..... sheesh! Today (Sunday) we got to do a little site seeing around Guangzhou. The highlight was a visit to the "Six Banyan Tree" Buddhist temple. 1000 year old monastery for Buddhist monks and a sacred place for the locals to pray. I will post pictures on Flickr from our trip as well.



To the right you will see the central sanctuary with the 3 Buddha's. They represent the past, present and future. Our guide asked one of the monks to perform a blessing ceremony for the babies which just thrilled us! Such a great opportunity to incorporate some of her culture into ours. We took our shoes off to enter the central area and kneeled down in front of the Buddhas. The Monk burned incense and chanted for the babies to live full and happy lives and to thank us for making room in our hearts for them. He sprinkled some sort of sacred water across us and chanted some more..... I loved it all. I was suppose to have my eyes closed but I couldn't stop from staring the whole time. Leah was transfixed.





So we come out of the blessing... and Lauren catches this great shot. Look closely.... cellphone in one hand and car keys in the other. How perfect is that?? You just gotta love a 21st century monk!






We also went to see the "Chen House". Very famous Guangzhou family had it built a couple hundred years ago. It is completely decorated in very ornate carvings across the whole building and above all the doors. Took 10 craftsman over 7 years to finish. They use it now for exhibitions and such....really beautiful.






There are two Lions that guard the entrance to the Chen ( Pronounced CHUN) House and I told Alex that kissing the lions brings you good luck ! Man, I love my little boy...... I wonder what I can get him to kiss next.



Lauren found this totem at the Buddhist Temple.... " May Peace Prevail on Earth." This is a universal theme and Lauren says they have the same totem in the gardens at Jesuit. Very cool.

There is one other item that has been fascinating to me that I have been watching for the past couple of days and I'm just having difficulty in figuring it out. Here at the White Swan this week is an Amish family. There is 9 of them.... 3 adults and 6 kids ranging from about 6 to 14. And they have adopted a beautiful baby. I see them all over town and they are wearing their traditional clothing. I can't really explain my fascination.... I mean I know so little of their culture. But adopting a baby from China? And I thought the culture was sort of a subsistence type thing with not a lot of worldly wealth. It would be very expensive to bring 9 people over here for 2 weeks! Oh well.... I will keep monitoring the situation.

Tomorrow is our first Consulate appointment and then we are heading out to the Pearl markets and shopping! Hard to believe that we will only have 3 nights left in China. (3 nights is equal to 3 years in teenager vocabulary..... )

Guangzhou Day 1 - The White Swan

Our first day here in Guangzhou and ohhhhh what a difference. We are staying at the White Swan Hotel which caters to the adoption crowd very well. The Hotel is located on a small "island" but really only divided away by a small canal that circles about a 6 block by 6 block radius. The area is full of restaurants and stores... and not nearly as crowded as Nanchang. For those few that have visited the White Swan before you will recognize the picture above immediately! Today we had medical appointments for the babies and have a ton of paperwork to fill out for our Consulate appointment on Monday. I wanted to take some time today to talk about the food here in China but first, Janice wants to talk all things Leah and would like to give you the latest and greatest !

First, I should say I think the babies were well cared for in the orphanage. When we received Leah on "Gotcha Day" all seven of the babies were freshly bathed, and were bundled warmly in nice clothing. After talking to the other moms who had been to China before to adopt, I know this is not always the case. The orphanage director gave each family a beautiful hardbound book that documented each child's stay in the orphanage with photos, writing and good wishes for the child's future. I have since had it translated by Karen, our CCAI rep, and it is truly a wonderful gift. We have also had a couple of opportunities to talk to the nannies and ask questions. All of the babies are on the thin side, but I am certain the orphanage did the very best it could with the limited resources it has. Leah weighed less than the orphanage indicated, and also only has 2 teeth instead of four like we were told. However, overall, she is in great shape...nothing that a lot of love and plenty of nutritious food won't take care of!

As far as food goes, I do not think the babies were given solid food in the orphanage...if they did, it was very little. For the first few days, Leah would grimace everytime I would give her a little steamed bun or congee. There was no way she was going to let that pass her lips! I have since resorted to Stage 1 baby food, and I am relying on the picture on the jar, since the labels are completely in Chinese. Every day she seems a little more receptive to solids. Today at breakfast she had a little strawberry yogurt and tonight she would take some egg soup broth. However, her little stomach doesn't hold much...she usually just drinks 4-6 oz of formula at a time.

We brought plastic stacking cups for Leah from home. She is almost always holding one of the cups, it seems to make her feel more secure. She is also a big time thumb sucker! I honestly don't know how she had access to her thumb in the orphanage, because when we visited it, all the babies were so bundled up with clothing and blankets, their arms stuck stiffly out to their sides! We have found that many of the Chinese women do not approve of her sucking her thumb. She has actually had it pulled out by these women! We have been told it will make her thumb ugly and very small at the base. It has been suggested to put ginger on her thumb to make it taste bad. I don't think we will be doing that!

As far as toys go, we only brought three, and they continue to amuse her. It really does take very little to make her happy!

Leah is a great sleeper. She sleeps solidly 9-10 hours per night. During nap time, lights are on, Lauren & Alex go in and out of our room and she sleeps through it all.

Leah had a cold when we received her on Sunday, as did several of the other babies. She has had congestion in her chest since then and I can feel a "rattling" in her chest and back. We have given her some over the counter medicine from the Chinese drugstore, but I haven't really felt like it has helped. Today, we took her to the doctor in the hotel and the CCAI rep, Grace, interpreted for us. The doctor said she has the beginning stages of bronchitis and gave us four medicines to give her. We are to give her these medicines for 4 days, shouldn't antibiotics be given for 10 days? I'm looking forward to getting back in the U.S. and seeing our regular pediatrician.

Leah is a different baby than when we received her on Sunday. On the first day, she was very quiet, but we did coax a smile out of her. She didn't make a peep when we put her down to sleep. On the second day, she laughed for the first time. Since we have had her, she is constantly being held, kissed, and played with by one of us. She has decided this is a very good thing indeed! We laugh at how quickly her whine turns into a smile! It's like a switch has been flipped. Now, she sometimes fusses when put down (and if distraction doesn't work, she is immediately picked up.) Now, she will sometimes fuss when put down to sleep, and if her back is rubbed, she will fall asleep easily. We truly see her personality emerging. She makes a really funny fish face, and has recently started to squeal. She is somewhat of a goofball! I figure we can "unspoil" her later if the need arises. Considering her past circumstances, I don't think there's such a thing as giving her too much love and attention right now.


We all feel so blessed to have Leah in our lives. I am really appreciating this time of being able to focus on her so much...no laundry, cooking or driving all over the place that is typical of my daily life. Thank you again to all of our friends and family that have offered all of their support during this time. We appreciate all of you!! Here's Brad again:


OK... first I should mention the "Canary in the Mine". We have ours when we travel .and her name starts with J. Generally, the first one to get hit with any digestive issues is Janice.... so we really do have our own canary. Jan gets sick and we all start being a little more careful. We are on day 7 here in China and I am happy to report that not a single stomach cramp among the troupe. She swears it's the Probiotics she has been taking.... Which is remarkable actually since we are not able to drink the tap water or really use it for anything without boiling it first... not even ice in drinks. Our guide here, Grace, even warned us away from salads and the like in the restaurants. But I digress!

Now....the food in China. If it flies and is not an airplane, if it swims and is not a submarine, if it has four legs and is not a table or chair.... then "game on" for the Chinese locals. This is NOT Hyperbole. The following is not for the weak of stomach or mind..... you have been fairly warned.





This picture to the right shows one of the items available each morning at our breakfast buffet in Nanchang. I want it duly noted that this is "diet" fry intestines.





We weren't really sure what sort of avian animal this was to the left.... we just called it ebony and ivory.





Fried bird feet must be all the rage.... we saw piles of these in a couple of different places. Like french fries I think.





and this?..... Well, we just have no idea. it was in the local grocery store.





Evelyn told us that Chinese feel that if you eat certain parts of animals it will make your parts more healthful. You eat heart and it makes your heart stronger... you eat the eyes and it helps your eyes... etc.

I think that the apple fritters I like at Starbucks make my apple fritter more healthful.

Hello From Guangzhou!

Just got into the White Swan Hotel and are busy unpacking and getting settled into our new home for the week. I can tell you already that compared to Nanchang... this place looks like Xanadu. Too late and too tired to post tonight but will make up for it tomorrow..... promise!

Last Night in Nanchang

So, since this is our last night in Nanchang I wanted to talk a little about our everyday lives while we were here... but first I have to share the excitement of our evening excursion. We have all been getting a little stir crazy here at the hotel and decided it was time to venture off the beaten path. We decided to grab a taxi and go down to this pedestrian mall type of thing a couple of miles from where we are now.

I am not sure how many cab drivers have had to stuff 26 feet of humans in their cabs before but after putting Alex in the front and the 3 of us plus Leah shoehorned in the back of a very small Chinese car...I gave him the written instructions from our guide and we were ready to go. Now, If you will remember from one of my first posts here, I talked a little about the traffic? Well..... O - M - G !

Imagine yourself strapped into a metal barrel on wheels and throw in a dash of Grand Theft Auto meets Space Mountain meets that screen saver with the stars that come flying at you ..... and that will give you the basic idea of our ride over to the mall. If I hadn't been gripping Leah with all my might next to my chest, I would have been able to take a picture of the terror on the rest of our faces as we careened through the streets, missing pedestrians, scooters, bikes and cars by inches. You actually had to close your eyes to keep from screaming. Of course, we all start getting those nervous giggles you get when you can't stop something inexplicably and inevitably from unfolding right before your eyes. By the time we got close to the place... and I kid you not... we appeared to be driving on a sidewalk.

Two blocks from our drop off we find ourselves in the middle of what they call their "Free Market"... which I would equate with our Saturday market but set in the wild wild west in the mid 1800's. A pulsating mass of animals, people, carts and booths selling everything you could possibly imagine. All of a sudden the cabby starts pointing and talking and pointing and talking and stops the car.... I am assuming it was something like: " Thank you for your patronage but I will be taking you no further on your journey. Please pass me your money and vacate my metal barrel quickly before we all get hit by other moving objects." Jan says, " I think he wants us out." Brad says: " HERE ??!!" Lauren says: " I don't WANT to get out." Alex is already out wondering why we are still in. Well, we all tumble out of the cab and into the middle of the market. To say that we drew some stares would be like asking the Pope if he is religious. We started moving up the street and found out quickly that it was not a good idea for us to stop in one place for any amount of time because of the crowds we would draw. We finally made it out of the market and up to the pedestrian mall in tact. As Evelyn stated it... .if you can drive in Nanchang, you can drive anywhere in the world.

I am planning on writing a post one night just to talk about the food here... but let me just say this one thing. Here in Nanchang you can get just about any type of food you could possibly imagine.... on a stick. That is all I'm saying. Janice wanted me to share that she had two different beggars follow us around and they actually both were hitting her on the arm with their cups. Alex and I are convinced that, like coyotes after the antelope, they were just trying to cull the weakest link from the herd. Grin.



We went site seeing today and visited the Teng Wang Pavilion, or Emperor's Palace. I have posted a bunch of new pictures to Flickr on the days adventure. As I mentioned, this is our last night and we are starting to get packed up for our travel day tomorrow to Guangzhou. We have been very fortunate here in Nanchang for our guides Evelyn and Karen. They have been utterly amazing. Not only do they make the impossible happen.... they anticipate each families needs before we even ask. Last night they went to the back of the restaurant and asked them to prepare us off the menu "western" type Chinese. Kung Pao Chicken, Sweet and sour pork, Fried rice and french fries. FRENCH FRIES !! How awesome is that? We send our laundry out each afternoon and it comes back the next day clean, folded and sealed in individual plastic pouches. We did like 2 pairs of jeans, 3 sweatshirts, 6 t-shirts, some shorts, underwear and socks yesterday... the bill ? $3.

The peanut butter and jelly we brought and the dried mangos have been a godsend but if I had to pick one thing in particular as the one item I am most glad we brought (and just by a fluke)? Starbucks Instant Coffee !!! Not sure what Janice and I would do each morning if not for the sweet, sweet aroma of Starbucks coffee wafting through the room.

One odd local custom I wanted to share and I will end this monologue. Each morning and each afternoon you can hear fire crackers going off in the middle of the street all over town. Not just one fire cracker... but 1000's by the string. It took a few days to figure this out but apparently firecrackers in the mornings are for weddings and in the afternoon for funerals. Both for the same reason... which is to scare away the evil demons from these sacred rituals. For the funerals, there is a long procession of people all wearing white, the customary color for mourning. For the weddings the bride and company wears red! So... there you go.

More to come from Guangzhou and the "White Swan" hotel that we will call home for the next week. Thanks again for all the fun and sweet notes we are receiving from everyone. Makes it almost like being home.

A Trip into the Country

Before I start my wanderings it has come to our attention that some of you might be having some difficulty in posting comments to the blog! We have only received comments from Curt, Brenda and Michelle since we have been to China. We have heard from a few others that they have tried but failed. Executive decision: I am electing Curt the Comment Master and he will be able to help anyone who would like get up and running in the proper manner. His email is curtp@sisulengineering.com. Thank you brother.



We felt very fortunate today to be able to travel out and visit the orphanage that Leah had spent the last year. It is located about an hour into the countryside in the city of Fengxin. The trip out reminded me of driving through Iowa and watching miles and miles of corn fields along the roads only here replace those with rice paddies. The paddies are amazing. Each area that grows rice has to be perfectly level so that when the irrigate the water flows evenly across the paddy. If there are any changes in slope across the field the farmers have to create a series of retaining walls as the move up to the next paddy. So, over say 100 yards of ground you might have 7 or 8 different levels... very pretty. But the most amazing thing is that they do all the leveling with Ox and by hand !! No machinery to be seen.




The Fengxin orphanage is actually pretty small with only about 40 children in residence at any one time and is basically set in the middle of rice fields. Jan and the kids went in to tour and Leah and I sat out in the bus and played "eat my foot." We were a little concerned about letting Leah return and see her nannies, that it might be confusing for her. We took lots of pictures and I have put some out with the other albums but we aren't allowed to post pictures from inside the orphanage....I wasn't keen on going in anyway... makes me so sad. Jan and the kids were much stronger. There are two big rooms full of cribs that are joined together by a narrow kitchenette where they prepared the bottles. There are 3 daytime nannies and one night time nanny in each room of 20 babies. The Nannies all were very enthusiastic and seemed to love the babies very much and did the best they could with the limited resources at hand. We also had a surprise on the way back in that our guides had arranged to stop at the "finding" place for each of the families daughters!! I think we are going to keep most of those memories and pictures for Leah and let her tell that story should she choose.

Some of you have asked about our travel group and we have purposely not talked a lot about them or shared pictures. This has been on purpose as we try to respect the privacy as much as we can. But I will share a little now and put a few pictures up on Flickr tonight. There are 7 families from all over the US with 5 of the families coming back to China for their second child. Some of the babies have been struggling a little as you might expect and we are all trying to pitch in and help where we can. They are all extremely nice and we are getting along quite well with a few of them in particular.



Tomorrow is site seeing and Evelyn is taking us to the "One place in Nanchang worth visiting." ( her words) Oh, and one last tidbit to pass along..... We are seeing less and less of Alex these days as he has become addicted to Chinese soap operas on the TV. Go figure !