Shopping and Mexican

Today we enjoyed another breakfast at the fabulous breakfast buffet and I am happy to report Hadley sat in her highchair the entire meal without any anxiety and pulling on my clothes. Every other time she has been so nervous she tears my shirt off of me, grabbing onto to me for dear life. Today she looked slightly uncertain but did not tear my shirt from my body, so for that I am very thankful.

Hadley went for the prepster look today in her polo and sweater. It suited her well and she received numerous comments about how cute she looked. She was sort of embarrassed by all the positive attention.

After breakfast we met the four other families in our group and our guide to head to the the pearl and jade market. It is a five story building full of wholesale jewelry, but with the majority being pearls and jade. Thank goodness for our knowledgeable guide Aron who knew just where to take us. I purchased a pearl necklace for each of the girls to have on their wedding day and a bracelet for them to have in the next few years whenever they grow into it. They are tiny and so cute! I also got myself a necklace and some earrings. They are all real salt-water pearls and are beautiful and were very reasonably priced. You got to choose the strand you wanted and they strung your necklace while you waited. It was amazing to see how quickly these women could string pearls and how pretty they all turned out. I can't wait to wear mine. Unfortunately so many of us bought so many items we used up the majority of our time and had to leave before checking out the jade.

This is just one wall of the pearl store. There were even more than what is in the picture.

It was overwhelming to make a decision. So many pearls to choose from!

From there we continued on to the Chen Family Temple which was build in the late 1800's and was made entirely of brick and wood. It was beautiful and the first historic Chinese building we were able to see. Who knew you could come to China and be here a week before ever seeing any old Chinese temples or landmarks? Apparently we have been in the wrong cities for sight seeing.

In front of the Chen Family Temple

This guy protects the temple and keeps the evil spirits out.

In the Chen family temple there is an old man who does calligraphy on beautiful scrolls. We had a scroll made that has the characters for Family, Love and Sisters and our three girls names and birthdays written in Chinese. It turned out really neat and I am excited to get it home and find the perfect spot to display it.

Old man writing on our scroll: Family, Love and Sisters

We also got each of the girls a chop which is a Chinese stamp that has the girls Chinese zodiac carved on top and their name in Chinese on the bottom. You get a red ink pad with it and can stamp your name in red ink. Our girls zodiac animals are a tiger, a rabbit and a dragon. Our guide told us those are three very strong animals and that means we have three strong girls. That is definitely true! We spend some time touring the temple and hanging out waiting for all of the families to make their purchases. Some of the other mother's and I were sitting in the courtyard area feeding the babies snacks and getting them out of the carriers to stretch their legs. There was a women who had a young son that was lingering unusually close, staring at us. She watched all of us for about 10-15 minutes. I went back in the shop to check on our scrolls and came back out awhile later and she was still there staring at us. We gathered the group out front when it was time to leave and stopped to make sure we were all there before heading to our bus. Wouldn't you know this woman was still there standing in the middle of our group of 15-20 people. It was so odd and I can't figure out what she was doing. I wish people would just stop and ask if there is something they want to know. 99% of adoptive parents I know are happy to talk about adoption and answer questions if someone is asking in a polite way to educate themselves rather than just being nosey and rude. I really regret not taking a picture of her. People here will blatantly take pictures of us a couple of feet from our faces so I totally could have gotten away with taking her picture. I sure regret that missed opportunity to share with you all.

We headed back to the hotel and were all worn out and starving. I headed to the room to feed Hadley and put her down for a nap and Aaron went to pick us up some lunch. We heard from another family in the group about a tasty takeout restaurant. They said they had a picture menu with a little English on it so it sounded like a winner to us. They recommended the beef fried rice. We can only go places with picture menus or else we would have absolutely no idea what we were ordering. Aaron headed to the restaurant and had a bit of trouble finding it. He was told what the name of the place was but when he got to where he thought he was supposed to be all of the building's signs were in Chinese. He picked one and headed in and pointed at a picture of what he thought was beef fried rice. (Side note: another mom told me she saw a menu item listed as MICED beef and rice. Clearly an important letter was missing from that item's name. She decided to pass on the mice beef). Anyway, Aaron mumbled beef fried rice and the lady said, "NO!" He pointed to the picture and the lady said, "NO!" Apparently they were out or she didn't want him to have any so he ordered some dumpling soup and two chicken dishes. He walked back into our room a while later and prefaced his delivery with, "I think I need to go get McDonalds instead." That is not what I wanted to hear. I opened the soup and it had noodles and dumplings. It looked good so I had a bite of the noodles. Not bad. Then I cut open a dumpling to try to identify what meat was inside and it was bright pink. Aaron tried to convince me that it might be ham. I was not convinced it was a ham dumpling and decided it was not safe to eat. I am horribly paranoid we are going to get sick from the food or water. We are not drinking the water, the ice, eating any fresh fruit or uncooked veggies, salads, or using the water to brush our teeth. A lot of other people in our group are eating the ice as well as fresh fruit and brushing their teeth with the water. I am disgusted at the thought and not taking that risk. Several other people in our group have been sick and we have not (knock on wood) so my paranoia is paying off in our advantage. Aaron accidentally rinsed his toothbrush in the sink the other day and I insisted he put it in boiling bottled water to disinfect it. I will not feed Hadley any of the fruit or the water either. Aaron explained that she has had her bottles made with this water for the last 16 months and can obviously drink it but I am not convinced and am only giving her bottled water as well.

We continued on with our lunch and opened the two chicken dishes. When I saw them I had to turn away in disgust and shield my face. There was still skin and parts of the chicken that we do not see in our meals or even on chicken in the grocery store. I couldn't bring myself to eat it. I felt like it was still sort of alive. Aaron had a few bites but then I made him paranoid and he headed to McDonalds instead. I swear to you that in the last year I have not eaten McDonalds 3 times. Well, in the past three days I have eaten McDonalds three times so I have hit my quota for the rest of the year. I am so ready to be home and eating real food again. My first meal in the Chicago airport will consist of a salad, a bowl of fruit, a McDonalds coke WITH ice and I will wash it all down with a big drink from the water fountain.

We had an afternoon walk to the grocery store where we wanted to pick up some food for Hadley. We left with a $6 bag pack of Goldfish and a little prepackaged container of pears and peaches. I had to pass on the baby food pouches because they were $5 a pouch. I thought they were steep at home at $1.50 each and will only buy them when they are on sale for $1. We did leave with about $50 worth of Chinese New Year decorations which I am so excited to have. CNY starts in a few weeks and we plan on celebrating it every year from now on.

The highlight of the day was dinner at Tequilas, which is the Mexican restaurant near the hotel. Yes, they have a Mexican restaurant here, in addition to the Irish pub and the Italian and German restaurants. They are all within walking distance of our hotel so who knows where we may end up tomorrow night. We met about eight other moms and their newly adopted kids and their families who I know through one of my adoption Facebook groups. We had a huge group and had a lot of fun sharing our stories and experiences. We sat next to a couple and their little girl Mayleigh, who is 19 months old. Poor Mayleigh was sick with a fever when they got her on Monday and is really having a hard time adjusting. She didn't eat for several days because she was so sick and they had to take her to the hospital once and back to the doctor again this week. She is a precious little girl and she and her family could use everyone's prayers. They are struggling here and missing their other kids back home. We are all struggling and torn between enjoying our time here and cherishing the one-on-one time with our new kids and wanting to be back home. Everyone is very homesick and we are all ready to get out of here. As much as I am dreading the 3+ hour van ride to Hong Kong followed by the 15 hour flight , then the 4 hour layover and the final hour flight, Thursday morning can't come soon enough! I can't wait to get my arms around my sweet girlies and let them meet their baby sister.

Fellow Louisvillian Stephanie and her new daughter Abby

Off to bed to rest up for our busy day trip to the zoo. I hope I see one of those dogs that has been groomed to look like a lion like you have seen in the news recently. If you haven't seen it, Google it. Apparently people felt cheated that they were trying to pass off a dog as a lion when they visited a Chinese zoo, but I think it sounds awesome! Can you imagine you are looking at the lion and it starts barking? That would be hilarious. I can see a lion at our zoo anytime, but a dog lion that is something I have not seen before!

Good night from China.

Medical Appointment

We started the morning off with another delicious breakfast at the buffet. Hadley sat in her high chair for about 10 minutes without being too terrified (we had to scoot her right next to one of us so she could touch us if need be) so we are making progress there. She still is terrified of the bathtub. We tried another bath yesterday and this time Aaron got in with her but she still screamed bloody murder. When we met her foster mother we asked and she told us she gave her a bath in the bathtub but this can't possibly be true. She must have used a baby tub or another small basin because Hadley is terrified of the big tub. We will have to pull the baby bathtub out at home and ease into the big tub. Our next bath in China will be in the bathroom sink even though she is way too big to fit comfortably.

After breakfast we met the rest of our group (there are four other families in our group who are all with our agency. Out of the five families, four of us have 15-16 month old girls and the other family has a 10 year old girl) and our guide, Aron to head to the medical clinic for the kid's check ups. It is a Chinese clinic but approved by the US Government and the CDC. Our bus dropped us off at the clinic which was in a tall office building. When we walked into the lobby there was a wine vending machine. Why don't we have those in office buildings in the US? We all joked if you had a rough day at the office you could grab a bottle on your way home. Depending on how our appointments went we may need to purchase one on our way out!

Wine vending machine in the lobby of the office building where the medical clinic was located

Not very reassuring that everyone working there wore a mask. Where were our masks?

We walked into the clinic and there were people everywhere. First, the kids had to have their pictures taken. I sat Hadley on the high stool (very similar to a high chair so I knew how this would go) and she immediately reached for me. In her picture you can tell she is terrified and reaching out for me to pick her up. After we all had pictures taken we waited for a few minutes while our guide did some paperwork. Then it was time to head to the exam area. This area was for adoptive families only so it was much less crowded and chaotic. Hadley gets nervous when we are out and in crowded areas. She puts her hand up over her face and snuggles in close. She often falls asleep which I think is a coping mechanism to avoid the situation.

We had to go through three stations: height and weight, Ear, Nose and Throat and a general exam. Height and weight was quick and easy, ENT consisted of a peek in each ear and looking down her throat with a tongue depressor, the general exam took about 2 minutes and consisted of listening to her heart and lungs and a quick check over her body. We were in and out of all three things in about 10 or 15 minutes. If you child is over 2 years old they also have to have a TB skin test which consisted of a quick blood draw. All the kids did great and we were finished in about an hour or so.

The doctor listening to Hadley's chest. She tolerated everything well. 

Hadley's new buddies, Eva and Lila and the daddies! They are all the same age but Hadley is the chunky one of the group.

We came back to the room and Hadley and daddy had lunch and I went upstairs to meet our guide and finish some paperwork for our Consulate appointment which is on Tuesday. The Consulate is the one who issues Hadley's visa to allow her to come to the US. That is the last official thing we have to do and we will spend the rest of the week sightseeing, shopping, going to the zoo, and enjoying time with the other families. There is a playground and playroom somewhere in the hotel so we need to check those out later so Hadley can practice her crawling, cruising and pulling up. She already seems so much stronger and every day is doing more and more physically than she did they day before. To all the other adoptive families, I highly suggest switching your child to a high quality American formula ASAP. I think it has made all the difference with Hadley. Her first bottle we gave her was all Chinese formula and I started mixing half and half and then 3/4 and 1/4 and by her fourth bottle she was on all American formula. She tolerated the switch without any issues and didn't seem to notice. I am glad I brought formula and one of the other mom's here did not and says she really regrets her decision.

Guangzhou Here We Come!!!

We said goodbye to our wonderful guide Maggie last night and left Taiyuan and had a two hour flight to Guangzhou.

Our sweet guide Maggie. We really enjoyed getting to know her and spending the week with her.

Hadley did great on the plane. She was her usual, happy, smiley self. She charmed people all around us. Thank goodness the lady next to us was friendly because Hadley was totally in her personal space, touching all of her stuff the entire flight. Our new guide Aron (this Aron is a girl. Easy for us to remember her name) met us at the airport and had a driver take us to the Garden Hotel. As we pulled off the highway and onto the street where the hotel was located we were surrounded by beautiful, colorful flowers, grass and palm trees. This was a beautiful sight after the week we had spent in Taiyuan. We pulled into the hotel and were in awe. It was beautiful, the area around the hotel is clean and there are stores and restaurants within walking distance. We got checked in and were shown to our room. It is a beautiful suite with a separate bedroom and sitting area and an awesome bathroom. I will get some pictures of our room later for you all to see.

We slept great and were feeling much better this morning. We headed to the breakfast buffet we have heard so much about and we were not disappointed. It was the most either of us have eaten since leaving home. Here is just a sampling of what I ate...scrambled eggs, bacon, hashbrowns with ketchup, blueberry yogurt, a croissant, a chocolate donut, a piece of toast, and a handful of Fruit Loops. Admittedly I shared some with Hadley but I consumed the majority of it. Hadley also had a bowl of congee which is a rice porridge. It looked awful but babies here often eat it and she seemed to enjoy it. She is a great eater and has not turned down anything we have offered her. She only has six front teeth (four on top, two on bottom) but can happily eat anything you give her. She does have a fear of high chairs. This was the first time we attempted to put her in a high chair and she screamed. We managed to calm her down and she sat and ate for a few minutes before ending up on our laps. She gets overwhelmed in crowds and there were a lot of people around so that didn't help. She is the same with the stroller. She gets nervous and wants to get out after two or three minutes.

After breakfast we went outside to take a walk around the hotel grounds. There is a four story waterfall and a huge pond with big coy fish. It was so nice to be outside enjoying some nature after spending a week in Taiyuan.

Behind the hotel standing near the coy pond

Daddy and Hadley in front of the waterfall

After our short walk we headed to the lobby to go in search of water. We ran into two other families in the lobby, one of whom I recognized from our Facebook Adoption group. We were so excited to be able to talk to some fellow Americans who are going through a similar experience. We look forward to spending the week with the other families. We have scheduled a happy hour date tonight!

We headed across the street to the grocery store and stocked up on water, Heineken, coke and a bag of pretzels. We laughed at our purchases and figure we can survive on the breakfast buffet and liquids and be just fine. We headed back to the room to do some laundry. We each brought enough clothes for about a week. Our clothes smelled like Taiyuan (which is not the most pleasant smell) so we had to wash everything. I decided the bathtub was the easiest way to go. Aaron saw me hunched over the bathtub washing and insisted it made much more sense if I got in and stomped the clothes like I was mashing grapes. So there I was stomping dirty laundry in the hotel bathtub sans pants. There is a video of this but I will spare you all from seeing me doing laundry with my feet in my underwear. The only problem with washing so many clothes is finding a place to dry all of these clothes. There are clothes hanging on anything and everything. I hope the maids don't come in and see!

The aftermath of bathtub laundry

...and some more here

We enjoyed McDonalds for lunch. It tasted exactly the same as McDonalds does in the US which was a welcomed surprise. I don't even like McDonalds that much and and almost never eat it at home but it was delicious. Hadley had her first chicken nugget and obviously loved it! Hadley is taking a nap and Aaron and I are watching The Katy Perry Movie on HBO. We have several English channels here so we will not be forced to watch any more documentaries about dams. Katy Perry is slightly more interesting. We are just hanging out for the rest of the day and having dinner and drinks with some of the other families. We will meet our group in the lobby tomorrow morning to head over for the kid's medical appointments.

Hadley emptying our suitcase

Our matching "Love All" t-shirt compliments of Sara Tyler who is a fellow adoptive mommy fundraising to bring home their son Beau.

Hadley likes to pucker and give kisses. She does it all the time. She even offered them to strangers on the airplane. Clearly we need to work on who is appropriate to kiss and who is not. 

Our Day Trip to Datong City

Today we woke up early to start on our long trip to Datong City where Hadley was born and has lived for the last 16 months. We are staying in Taiyuan which is the capitol city of Shanxi province. Datong City is about a four hour drive from Taiyuan. We started our morning at the breakfast buffet which was again very mediocre. I have mastered sneaking rolls, eggs, and cereal in my pockets to feed Hadley later in the day so that's a plus. After breakfast we hit the rode and headed toward Datong City. We have been riding in a van all week with a driver and our guide Maggie. There are not carseats in China so I have been dreading this part of the trip since I found out we would have to visit Datong and it was four hours away. Well, Hadley did great in the car. She slept a little, ate snacks and played. She is still very happy and content to sit still for long periods of time. I have a feeling that isn't going to last much longer because she is getting more and more brave each day.

Happy girl in the car

Welcome to Datong City! They mine a lot of coal here.

We arrived in Datong around 1pm and our guide asked us if we wanted to have lunch at KFC, a place with beef noodles or a local restaurant that has been famous for their noodles for over 100 years. The Datong area is known for these noodles they are very thick and flat. It was a very hearty meal.

Datong noodles. They were yummy!

Datong City was a welcome change from Taiyuan. Since leaving Louisville early last Friday we have not seen anything green and alive, and have not seen sunshine or a blue sky. The smog here is so bad that the sky is always grey, blocking most the sun and there is a dirty grey sot on everything. Aaron has described Taiyuan as looking like a post-apocalypse city. Another adoptive mother described a similar city in China as District 12 in the Hunger Games. This is a very accurate description of where we have been all week and we were happy to get out and drive through the country and the mountains. We pulled into the parking lot of the noodle shop and jumped out of our van and headed in. It was very small inside and very crowded and everyone was smoking. Yuck! As we walked in carrying Hadley all 20-30 people in there stopped what they were doing and looked at us. Some looked with a disapproving eye, others were supportive of us. The lady at the table next to us couldn't stop looking at Hadley and talking to her. Eventually she pulled out her phone and snapped about 20 pictures of Hadley (can you imagine if you tried that in the US). Our guide helped us order our noodles and the grand total for two huge bowls of noodles came to 14 RMB or $2.30. It is a good thing we brought our own water bottles (sidenote...we carry a bottle of water everywhere we go because restaurants don't sell bottled water. Our guide was shocked by the number of bottles and jugs of water we have gone through. She can't figure out what we are doing with it all) because everyone else in the restaurant had their own pint of liquor with their lunch. It appeared to be the only thing that they sold to drink. Aaron and I were assuming that it was not as strong as what we are used to or else these people wouldn't be drinking a pint with lunch and then heading back to work, or would they?

After our giant bowls of noodles it was time to visit Hadley's orphanage, the Social Welfare Institute of Datong City. She only spent one week there right after she was born so we had contemplated whether or not to come but we found out on Gotcha Day that we would be able to meet Hadley's foster mom at the orphanage. We were excited to have the opportunity to meet her and be able to learn a little more about Hadley's past but were also very nervous about how Hadley would react to seeing her again. We have had a great few days and we didn't want any set backs. We got to the orphanage and jumped out of the van and headed through the front gates. It was a beautiful, clean, well-kept facility. We couldn't believe how nice it was walking through the campus to the back where the kids were. We walked in and waited in an office for a few minutes for Hadley's foster mom to arrive. She came a little while later and lit up when she saw me standing there with Hadley. I purposefully had Hadley in my Ergo carrier strapped to my chest. Her foster mom approached us and was so happy to see her and Hadley was thrilled to see her as well. After a few minutes she insisted I get Hadley out and she wanted to hold her. I looked and Aaron and we couldn't decide what to do. Finally I hesitantly handed Hadley to her and then I started crying. I had to turn away. It was too much to watch them together. The foster mom was crying, our guide cried, even Aaron cried before the visit was over.  They were both so excited to see each other. Don't get me wrong, I am so thankful that they have such a wonderful relationship and Hadley was clearly well cared for and loved by this woman but I was worried about what would happen when I tried to take Hadley back. I was scared to death I would have to rip Hadley from this woman's arms while she screamed bloody murder. I was afraid Hadley wouldn't understand and would think I was taking her away from the only mother she has ever known. We were able to ask the foster mother a few questions and get some additional information which is wonderful to have. You know so little about these kid's past that us adoptive parents will take any info we can get even if it means enduring the pain of a situation like this. We asked her if she would like to write Hadley a letter for us to give to her when she was older and she happily wrote a letter to her, which our guide is going to translate for us.  We thanked her so much for taking good care of our sweet Hadley and she wished us luck and said she hopes Hadley is happy and loved in our family. We assured her that won't be a problem. At this point we were all crying again. She handed Hadley back to me and she happily came right to me without shedding a tear. My sweet girl. What a relief!

Hadley's foster mother

After a few minutes the director gave us a tour of the orphanage. We were so impressed with what we saw. The children were very well cared for and the facilities were amazing. I would pay money to send my kids to preschool there (and that is saying a lot coming from my background in Early Childhood Education and my high standards for quality child care). The kids were all playing with appropriate toys, the classrooms were well stocked with everything they needed and very clean. Everything was well kept. The nannies were involved playing, reading and singing songs. The kids were all so excited to see us and were waving and coming up to get a closer look at us. There is another family in my adoption Facebook group and we were able to meet their son and check on him for them. We got several pictures and videos but that little boy would not smile for us. He was a stubborn little guy but this mommy was happy with any pictures we could get. We continued on our tour and saw the therapy room, sensory integration room, therapy pools, physical and occupational therapy room and even an acupuncture room. My fellow early childhood ladies would have been impressed (Brooke, Dawn, April, Jennie Beth). Although these kids were all abandoned and didn't have a family, they had every opportunity for success at this place. I am so happy that there are good orphanages out there because you usually only here the horror stories of the awful ones. However, the reality is that these poor kids are all orphans and the majority of them will never know the love of a real family and will age out of the system without ever being adopted. We finished up our tour and headed out to go back to the van. Hadley's foster mother was there and followed us all the way out to the van. It was a long walk and she fussed over Hadley the whole time. Pulling her pants legs down when a bit of ankle was exposed to the cold air and zipping her coat up tight around her neck and over her face. This was all happening while Hadley was strapped in the carrier to my chest. We walked quickly to the car, said our final good byes and left. We were so relieved that was over but so glad we went through with meeting her. I think it was good closure for both Hadley and her foster mother and we were able to properly thank this woman for taking care of our sweet Hadley.

Entrance to the orphanage

Walking through the orphanage grounds to the back buildings were the kids are

Toddler class

Play area outside of the classrooms

One of the therapy rooms

Older toddler/2-3 year olds

From there we headed on to the police station for Hadley's passport. We pulled into a random alley and were instructed to get out. We went into an old dingy looking 12 story building and headed up the elevator to the 11th floor. While waiting for the elevator Aaron pointed out the man sleeping on a chair in the corner. He appeared to be a security guard. Clearly working hard to protect the building (sarcastic tone). The doors opened and there were people everywhere and of course most of them were smoking. We weaved through crowds of people (we have no idea what they were all doing there on a Wednesday afternoon) and headed down a long, dark hallway with a million closed, unmarked doors. Our guide picked a door and gently knocked. A few minutes later a man opened it and invited us in. We walked down another hall and into a small office. There was a man laying in bed napping! There was  desk with a computer and a bed in this office. Who has this random man resting in bed in the middle of the day and why was there even a bed in the office? Aaron and I were so amused but everyone else acted like this was totally normal. Of course we had to take a picture to share with all of you. We showed a couple pieces of paperwork to the man at the desk and showed him Hadley to verify she was the right child. I had to climb around the man on the bed to get to the guy at the computer to show him Hadley's face. Don't mind me mister, just continue your nap. Thirty seconds later we were done. Could we not have done that in Taiyuan and saved ourselves 8 hours of driving?

Hallway in the police station to the office we needed to go to

Don't mind the guy sleeping on the rock hard bed. 

I had to climb around his feet to get back behind the desk.

The highlight of my day was I know can say I have successfully used a squatty potty twice. I have heard so much about it in the China adoption world. It is basically a hole in the floor and you squat over it to pee. It is a little tricky to get your pants in the right position so you don't pee on your pant leg or shoe or accidentally fall in. I can now say I have mastered it and hope to never experience it again. I can't imagine how old people do it. It was a challenge.

We got back in the van and headed back on our four hour journey home. For a large part of the drive we went about 40 mph on the highway. Aaron and I cannot figure out why we were driving so slow and think we could have cut the time of that trip in half if the driver had let one of us drive. However, Hadley was not in a carseat so I guess it's a good thing we weren't doing 90mph.

You could see part of the Great Wall on our drive home as the sun was setting. It was really neat and I am glad I at least got a peek at it since we did not have an opportunity to visit.

A peek at the Great Wall of China

This is how Hadley spent a lot of the ride home...laying on me for four hours.

Got back to the hotel and ordered room service. We were much more successful than our attempt the first night. We are old pros at this but are so ready to leave Taiyuan and head to Guangzhou. The original plan was to wait to pick up Hadley's passport late Thursday and then fly out on Friday morning. However, we were able to move our flight up to tonight and another family who is also in Taiyuan will be bringing Hadley's passport to us in Guangzhou.

We leave Taiyuan in a couple of hours and have a two hour flight to Guangzhou where we will spend the last week of our trip. We are desperately ready to get to Guangzhou, spend time with other Americans and get out and enjoy the culture and history of this beautiful country.

Hadley's True Colors

We have had a great day today. As I mentioned in the last post, we had a morning appointment at the Civil Affairs office. Our appointment was early so we missed the breakfast buffet again. We snuck in and grabbed Hadley an egg that she ate in the car. She loves eggs! At the appointment they asked what we thought of her and why we came to China to adopt a baby. We swore we would not harm or abandon Hadley and would always love her. We stamped our fingerprints in red ink and Hadley stamped her hand. We took a few pictures with the orphanage director and the nanny who came with Hadley. They traveled four hours from Hadley's home town of Datong City to Taiyuan, which is the capitol of the province of Shanxi.

After our appointment we headed back to the hotel and spent some time playing in the room. Hadley was tired and went down for what I thought would be a quick morning nap but turned into a very long nap. We had planned on walking to get lunch but she kept on sleeping and we hated to wake her up after the traumatic few days she has had. So she slept though lunch time and we missed yet another meal. I now understand how people loss weight when they come on these trips. It is a lot of work to find food here. Once she finally woke up we headed out to Walmart in search of a stroller. The walk to Walmart is just about five blocks but you have to cross the busiest main street in the city. We just stick by the locals and run when they run and weave in and out between the speeding cars and trucks when they do. After Walmart we grabbed some KFC and headed back to our room. It is funny that we do not eat KFC or Pizza Hut at home ever but it is all we want here. We are already sick of Chinese food and the local food in this area has a very specific taste and smell that is not our favorite.

After eating we played for a bit. My goal for today was to get Hadley down on the floor to play without having to be on my lap. She has been very hesitant when I sit her down and will cry. She is fine if we are holding her or if she is sitting in our lap. Today she ate lunch sitting by herself in a chair and then sat and played on the floor with us. I was crawling around and she crawled after me! That was something we hadn't seen and weren't sure she knew how to do. They told us that she didn't feed herself and needed to be spoon fed. This was true lasts night and this morning. There was a plate of food sitting in front of her and she never touched it. If you put food in her hand she would just hold it until you pried it from her grip. She did not know how to pick something up and bring it to her mouth. We have been working on this today with puffs and by tonight she was picking up puffs off the bed using her pincher grasp. We would cheer every time she got one in her mouth and now she is an old pro and has eaten half of a container of puffs! We think she has said her first word too (the first word we have heard her say anyway). I brought her a little stuffed duck that she has been cuddling and sleeping with and two or three times today she said "da" in reference specifically to her duck. It may be a stretch but we think that is what she is saying. She loves reading books and turns the pages and points her little pointer finger at all the pictures. We were told she loves music and tonight she got a hold of the laptop and accidentally started some music. She immediately started dancing! Earlier we were playing with stacking cups and we put them on our head and told her it was a hat. She spent 10 minutes putting everything in her reach on her head like a hat. She is very smart and is catching on very quickly. She smiles and gets very excited when I approach her and she knows I am going to pick her up. She has warmed up to daddy today too. She let him hold her and carry her while we were walking to Walmart and she played on the floor with him while I was out of the room without any issues. She still is a little weary of him when she starts getting sleepy and will avoid making eye contact. I think by the end of the day tomorrow they will be best buds! The worst part of the day was bath time. We didn't want to traumatize her last night with a bath but it was long overdue. She hated everything about it and was trying to climb out of the tub. Poor Aaron ended up climbing in to hold her while he was fully clothed. Hopefully the next bath goes better. We are going to have to try something different.

Her personality really came out tonight and she had so much energy. She was actually crawling over to things and picking them up and playing with them where as before she was very hesitant and wouldn't reach out and touch anything. Now she is grabbing anything within arms reach and crawling to get what she wants. She was pulling up to stand on the edge of the bed but just couldn't get enough grip. I think she is probably able to do it and hopefully we will see that tomorrow. They said she is walking with some assistance. We haven't seen it yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see it soon.  It was a lot of fun to see her playing tonight and see her being more comfortable with us. It seems like she has been with us for way longer than a day and we have already seen so much progress. I can't wait to see what she is willing to do in a few more days. She is very smiley and continues to giggle at us all the time.

Tomorrow morning we have to make the four-five hour trip to Datong City by van. We will be riding for 8-10 hours round trip with Hadley and no car seat. I am dreading the drive and hoping she will sleep part of the time. We will go to the police station to do some paperwork. We are also planning on visiting the orphanage where Hadley spend the first week of her life. Since one week old she has been in a foster home. We were told that we would be able to meet her foster mother tomorrow so we are looking forward to talking to her and learning a little more about Hadley's past. I am nervous with how Hadley will do seeing her foster mother again and haven't decided what we will do. Is it better for her to have the closure of seeing her one last time and then leaving with us or not seeing her at all and just letting one of us talk to the foster mother privately? We will have plenty of time in the car to make a decision that we think is best for Hadley.We know two other families who have children either at the orphanage or in foster homes in the area and we are hoping we will be able to see them and get some pictures for their mommies and daddies tomorrow.

We will be back later tomorrow night and will probably be exhausted so I will probably do our next blog update on Thursday.

Stay warm back home! I was so worried we were going to freeze here and you all are the ones with the extreme cold.

Gotcha Day Video

This video is for my step-mother-in-law Teresa who has been watching Gotcha Day videos on You Tube for months. This video does not seem to want to play if viewed from your iPhone but works fine on the computer. I will see if I can fix it later. Sorry!

We have our girl!!! (and I thought my last post was long)

Monday, January 6 started very early for me. I woke up around 3am China time and was unable to fall back asleep. I read, checked in with everyone back home through Facebook and texting, had a snack and just laid in bed. Nothing helped and that was it for sleep for me. Not a great way to start the day but it was Gotcha Day so who cares. Gotcha Day is the day you get your adopted child for all those outside the adoption world that don't know all of the terminology. I laid around as long as I could and finally woke Aaron up so we could get to the breakfast buffet. We were not going to miss it like we had the day before. I was starving and really looking forward to the buffet which I have heard so much about from the adoption Facebook group I am in. Well, it did not live up to our expectations and we are hoping for a better buffet at the Garden in Guangzhou next week. We ate and then came back to the room and killed time watching Breaking Bad on the computer and eating peanut butter sandwiches and Pringles for lunch.

Our last picture before we headed out the door

We were scheduled to meet our guide Maggie in the hotel lobby at 1:45pm and had to be at the Civil Affairs office by 2:30pm. We were early getting downstairs (we are never early for anything since having kids) and Maggie was already here. I was relieved because I wanted to make sure we were to the Civil Affairs office before Hadley so she wouldn't be waiting on us. We rode in the van for about 20 minutes through the usual crazy traffic to get to the office. We pulled into the parking lot of a random unmarked 5 story building and headed in. We rode to the elevator to the fifth floor and got off.

We were amused with the sign and illustrations in the elevator.

The hallway was dark, dirty, and had many unmarked, closed doors. There was no one else on the floor and nothing appeared to be opened. It was very odd.

Had our guide not been leading us I would have assumed we were in the wrong place. This is at 2:00pm on Monday. Where is everyone?

We walked down the long, dark, stale smelling hallway (you can smoke inside in China and everyone smokes even in the hotel elevator) to an unmarked door. Our guide knocked. I couldn't figure out who could possibly be in there. The door opened and there was one woman in there sitting at a desk with a computer. There were a few couches and some random old filing cabinets. It was not at all official and was nothing at all what we expected and it was cold. There was no heat in the building.

Non-official looking Civil Affairs office

We sat down and anxiously waited. It was only 2 and she wasn't due to arrive until 2:30. I passed the time by watching the traffic outside in the intersection. I have a few photos but it really doesn't do it justice to show you how crazy it is.

Ten or fifteen minutes later there was a knock at the door and Aaron and I jumped up with our cameras in hand. It was two other caucasian couples. These were the first white people we had seen since Beijing on Saturday morning. One couple was from Michigan and adopting a little boy who is 22 months old named Corbin and the other couple was from Finland and adopting a 3 year old girl. We didn't talk to them much because they were on the other side of the room so we didn't get their whole story. We were all so excited to see each other and quickly shared stories about the trouble we had all had navigating the city and trying to find food. Everyone talked and laughed for a few minutes and then it got very quiet as we all realized what was about to happen. The kids were running a little late so we were all on the edge of our seats. The couple next to us from Michigan were very nervous and trying to calm each other (it is their first child). We heard someone in the hall and everyone jumped to their feet in anticipation. The door open and it was several older Chinese couples. They were in the wrong room! I have no idea what they were looking for, there appeared to be nothing else going on anywhere around this room. We all sat down, disappointed, exhaling our breath we had been holding. Several more minutes passed and the door opened again. We all jumped up and then sat back down. Another American couple entered followed by two Chinese woman and the most adorable little girl. She appeared to be about 3 years old. For a moment Aaron and I looked at each other and did a double take to make sure it wasn't Hadley. I knew she would be older and bigger than her pictures but no way was she that big. Plus, this little girl had longer hair cut into a cute bob haircut. These people all sat down across the room and the American woman was clearly crying. We put it all together after a few minutes and figured out this was their little girl. The child was standing between the two women who brought her there and was hesitant to go to her new parents. This poor mother was dying to get her hands on her daughter and they were busy asking questions and doing paperwork. When the nanny and orphanage director finally pushed the little girl in their direction, the child hesitated and tried to back up. She didn't want to go to them and she started crying. Well at this point the lady from Finland and I both lost it and were in tears. It made the situation so real and my heart went out to that little girl. She was so scared and confused and didn't know who these people were even though they knew and loved her already. It is hard to watch with a child who is old enough to realize what is going on. After a few minutes the new parents bribed her with a toy or some snacks and all was well. We all pulled ourselves together and were again waiting. Another knock at the door and in they came. Hadley was the first one in and I recognized her immediately.

First time we saw our sweet Hadley.

 I was worried she may look older and different and not like the pictures we have been staring at for months. She was being carried by a woman and Aaron and I approached them and smiled at her. She smiled back at us and I reached out for her and grabbed her. She was fine with it and smiled at all of us.
We sat down on the couch and she laid her head on my chest. She cried a few times a little but was overall doing great. The other little girl who had come in first started crying at this point because her nanny and the orphanage director left and she was alone with her new parents. When she started crying Hadley started to get upset and cry. Fortunately these people took a hint and walked their screaming child out into the hall. The other children who came in with Hadley did great. They all cried and hesitated a little but were quickly distracted with snacks and toys. We did some paperwork and played for a few minutes and were done. This began the 24 hour harmonious period which is like a test drive with your new child. If you don't like how things go you can refuse to finalize the adoption. I can't imagine this happens very often.

We headed out of the building and went next door to a grocery store. We needed to get Hadley some of the formula that she was used to. I wanted to give her that at first to avoid any additional unnecessary changes for her. As we walked through the store the stares and pointing we have heard about began. Older people were shocked as they saw Aaron and I and then realized the baby I was carrying was Chinese. I don't know if they do not approve of international adoption or just don't know about it and don't understand. I imagine some of them are trying to figure out how Aaron and I who are obviously caucasian had a Chinese baby. People will get very close and point and stare and then call their significant other over to point out our obviously Chinese baby. I could see how this would make some people uncomfortable but we knew this reaction was a possibility so we are kind of amused by it. I wish I could make a quick comeback or clever joke in Chinese when people start pointing at us.

Condoms are readily accessible everywhere. This is in the grocery store checkout line next to the gum. We were curious about the different types: together or jeans. Which would you choose? 

We got our formula and headed out. We got back in the van and thought we were headed back to our hotel but the driver pulled over and stopped. We were told to get out. Our guide had told us earlier that we needed to have a family picture taken for our paperwork. I would assume they would just snap a quick picture at the Civil Affairs office with a digital camera, but that was not the case. We were ushered out of the van and down a long, narrow street with all sorts of venders selling their wares. There was a random assortment of housewares, lots of food, nuts, meat on a stick, fruits and veggies, etc.

Those bags are all full of nuts

We walked a few blocks and came to a small photography studio.

As we entered Aaron was trailing behind taking pictures and a woman chased him down, yelling something. Aaron obviously had no idea what she was saying so our guide who was already inside walked back out to translate. The woman wanted Aaron to teach her son English. Sorry lady, we don't live here and we do not speak Chinese. We can be of no help to you. We all had a good laugh about this and walked inside. We were instructed to take our shoes off and led to a tiny studio that was set up. We sat on some stools, holding Hadley and had our picture taken. She was smiling and laughing at the photographer. She is a real ham and giggles and smiles at everyone we pass on the street. We can't figure out what she is laughing about but it is very cute.

Once we had a pictures in hand we were on the way back to the hotel.

No carseats in China. This is how we ride. Makes me very nervous. This should make our 8 hour+ trip in the van tomorrow very interesting. Dreading that.

 We got settled in our room and Aaron had to fill out a bunch of paperwork. He admitted after the fact that he now knows why I am in charge of filling out all the paperwork. To give him credit, this was all in Chinese and he and our guide were going back and forth trying to figure out what he was supposed to write. The majority of my paperwork has been in English. I played with Hadley a bit and fed her a bottle. She whimpered on and off for a while when she looked around and realized it was only us in the room. She let me hold her and console her so I was happy with that. She was happy to play with Aaron but wasn't too sure about him holding her yet. We didn't push it and Aaron headed out to pick up a Pizza Hut pizza while I got Hadley changed and settled in for the night. On the elevator ride back from Pizza Hut in our hotel there was a Chinese family with a teenage daughter. When she saw Aaron and confirmed he was an American through a confusing exchange of words she was so excited. She pulled out her phone and did a mini-photo shoot with Aaron. They did some selfies together and she was posing and working the camera. What I wouldn't give to have those photos!

This girl had a very long and hard day and passed out on me!

It was another long night for me that night. I took a melatonin before bed and fell asleep early around 9:30 unfortunately I woke up around 1:30 and was awake for several hours. I finally started dozing off again and Hadley started to stir for the first time all night. She popped her head up in her crib and looked at me and smiled! I put her in bed with us and we dozed for another hour or so before waking up to get ready to head to the Civil Affairs office to finalize the Chinese side of the paperwork. Our harmonious period had ended and we knew hands down she was a keeper (as if there was ever any doubt)!