We Survived and are Back!

I do not recommend 24 hours of traveling with a two-year old but sometimes there are no alternatives and the great news is we are back and it is over! We arrived 8-ish pm Thursday evening at Dulles airport and unfortunately had a rather long line to get through Customs. And although the Chinese had a civilized process at their airport that allowed Libby and I to go straight up to a special handling fast line (based on our obvious handicap), there was no such special treatment at Dulles. Well, that is until we had been in the line for "too long", Libby's "good" was "used up", and I had run out of any form of diversion. At that point I adopted a sort of "go for it Libby" attitude and miraculously a nice customs gentleman came up to me rather quickly and escorted us to the front of the line. I suppose we were making a bit of a scene. If I'd allowed that a bit sooner I might have been able to avoid the lovely bite mark on my upper arm! Oh well! :) Libby is doing pretty good with all the adjustments and transitions. She likes to swing on the front porch swing and she and Andrew are starting to interact a lot and have fun. It is a bit challenging for Andrew to have a little one getting so much attention so we keep telling him what a great big boy he is and that we want Libby to copy his behavior (and not the other way around - which naturally happens some because she gets attention!). In China I think eating was our hardest time. At home, sleeping is now our hardest time. It helps a lot to have our own high chair, plastic bowls, and constant access to food, drinks, and snacks. But add jetlag to the sleeping process and that has been harder. Last night she did sleep all through the night so hopefully we are on the way toward improvement. The hard times now are getting her down to sleep. This is not unusual. One of the "experts" on adoption noted that during the day the kids can stay distracted with all the activities and new happenings but naps and night time allow them quiet time without diversion and they get back caught up in all that is happening to them. Below are some travel pictures, including our guide Becky, and a link to a discussion of adoption transition issues (just fyi). http://chinaadopttalk.com/2006/11/14/the-not-so-rosy-part/

Thursday - We're Off!

Hi all - it is early Thursday morning and we are off to breakfast to ready for an 8:15 meeting in the lobby with our guide and the other family that leaves today. Our first flight to Beijing is not until 12:30, but the other family leaves first at 11 so we all are taking a van together to the airport. Yesterday was uneventful-- Late breakfast and a trip to the shopping street to purchase more baby wipes at the department store. I did packing and Libby took and afternoon nap and it was rainy - which is actually nice because there is actually a blue sky afterwards. At 4:30 Becky our guide called at had Libby's visa and paperwork in the lobby. I met up again with Rose and family and went for short walk and early dinner at the 3rd of the Chinese restaurants recommended by Becky, and I think this was the best. Some more pictures, maybe including Libby enjoying ice cream. Think of us today - and tomorrow! - as we are on our long marathon journey home. 12:30 flight to Beijing (3 hours); layover in Beijing; 6-ish flight from Beijing to Dulles - arrive as new American citizen Thursday night!

Tuesday - Consulate and Safari Park

Today started early with a 7:30 meeting with our guide in the lobby and an 8:30 appointment at the US consulate to finish up the process to get Libby's US visa. We were back to our hotel by around 10:15. Our guide will pick up the documents from the consulate tomorrow afternoon and deliver them to us at the hotel at around 4:30 pm. After the consulate Libby and I went with Rose's family (Elizabeth and Rick) to the Safari Park. Grace and I had taken Andrew in 2010 and it is really impressive. They have a lot of variety of animals and a LOT of all the animals that they have. If any of you have a special interest in animals and zoology it is Chimelong Safari Park if you want to google it. You can get really close to alot of animals. It starts with a train right through their safari area and it seemed like some worker was throwing food to each set of animals as our train passed by. I was anxious for him to hurry up with the throwing to the tigers because they were eyeing the train riders as if they thought we'd make a good alternative meal. We did not get back until about 4:45. Libby slept a bit in the stroller (like Andrew, she slept through the panda exhibit) and has been playing here in the room and snacking on some leftovers. We will venture out to the shopping street in a minute for our evening walk and then return for room service again. I am intending to include photos from the shopping street, our Holiday Inn hotel above the shopping street, us at the consulate and an animal shot. I have given up on trying to format on blogger because it never seems to show up how I intended. And sometimes the pictures I want will not insert. So that may or may not be the pictures you will see below - or as it turns out, above. I am also including (maybe) a picture of Libby enjoying lotion. She has done really well with tooth brushing because I have discovered that she is a lover of all kinds of personal products. And she loves putting the lotion on her arms and legs. Tomorrow is a free day. Rose and family have their consulate appointment tomorrow so maybe we will go back to the island for walking around after they return. See you soon!

Monday - 6 Banyan Temple

Today our guide met all 3 families at 10:30 in the hotel lobby to take us on a tour of the 6 Banyan Temple. There used to be 6 Banyan trees but now there are 5. There is a happy Budda when you enter and behind him an angry Budda facing the other way (according to our guide, added by the Monks to discourage people who were stealing the offerings). We were back to the hotel area at about noon and Libby and I had lunch again with the Massachusetts family and their daughter Rose. According to her mom, Rose's Chinese name means "beautiful flower" and that was part of the selection process for her name. And part of Libby's Chinese name is Jian which is the word for double-edged sword. :) Below are pictures from the temple tour, including a picture with all the families: Libby (2 in March), Rose (2 in March a week before Libby) and Lila (2 in January). Also random pictures of the streets of Guangzhou. We had to be back to our rooms between 1:30 and 3 for our guide to call us with the results of the TB medical test. Libby passed so no extra hurdles there. It is 4:30 pm and Libby is up from her nap. We will probably walk the shopping street for a while and order room service and have an early night. We have to meet our guide at 7:30am in the lobby (after breakfast) to go to our US consulate appointment at 8:30. Then Wednesday is a free day and Thursday home.

Videos don't work . ..

Oh well. Here are a couple of pictures instead.

Videos

Here are a couple of videos that may show you a bit more of Libby's personality. Assuming this all works . . .

Sunday in Guangzhou

Let me start by saying that anyone who wants to send me an email to say hello is welcome! I'm a bit like a kid sent off to camp - on the other side of the world!! :) Libby and I had a good "free" day today. At breakfast we ran into another family with our agency who also just adopted a 2 year old daughter. The mom and dad are traveling and they have 3 older sons at home. We made plans to meet after Breakfast to walk to Shaiman Island. I can't seem to get photos to insert in the correct order/placement but I bet you all can figure them out. The island is in the middle of the Pearl River and is a former colonial area with western style buildings and lots of "garden" / tree filled walk ways. It is about a 20 minute walk from our hotel and a nice escape from the bustle and noise of the shopping area where we are located. The island is where we spent our entire time when we adopted Andrew. There is a historic hotel there that was a frequent staying place for adoptive families - The White Swan Hotel. It has been under renovation for some time and is completely closed down and covered with scaffolding. We walked and walked, played at a playground, ate lunch at "Lucys" (another mainstay restaurant for adoptive familes (English menu!)) and bought some souveniers. There are statutes all over the island and it is a common place for Chinese couples to take wedding photos. We returned to the hotel and Libby is napping. It is almost 6 pm here. We will stay in and have room service again tonight - eating is our hardest time. But we will make a run to the department store on the shopping street which sells diapers on the 3rd floor. These are pictures above of Libby, Rose and lots of other similar aged kids posing with a statue of children. Libby got the "statue" part and I don't think moved once I placed her into position. It is this side of her personality when she is studying things and taking it all in that tricked me into thinking she is reserved and shy. She does stand back to study all the options --- but then she is really prepared to make her move! She watched and watched at the playground but once she had some idea of the "game" she is definite about tapping and pointing and pulling you where she wants you to go. She figured out the slide and wanted to be lifted to the hanging bars. I'm sure she will really like it when she has access to swings!

Arrived in Guangzhou

Yesterday we divided up and David and the big kids, now including Andrew, flew to Beijing and Libby and I flew to Guangzhou. The US Consulate that processes the visa paperwork is located here so everyone who adopts from China has to finish their process in this city. Our guide today said that the downtown/city population here is 10 million. This picture above is not so great since it is a self-picture I took in the reflection at the airport. If you look closely you can see me holding Libby as she naps and all of our "stuff" piled all around us. Our original flight to Guangzhou was cancelled so we were rescheduled on a 9:15 pm flight. It may have worked out best since she was exhausted and slept almost the full flight. Not the entire flight because, of course, I have to count those important minutes at the beginning where I had to move her from my lap and buckle her into her own seat belt. She actually seems to like and expect the buckling process in high chairs and the stroller, but not so much the airplane. Luckily I was seated in a row of lots of friendly young people who all made great efforts to distract her and calm her down. And the stroller that I abandoned at the airplane door happily was back at the door exit when we arrived - I took my chances with that because I simply could not maneuver all of it onto the plane and it wasn't going to be a huge loss either way. The guide and driver were easily found and we arrived at our hotel just after midnight. This morning (Saturday) Libby and I and two other families met in the hotel lobby at 9 am to go to get the required medical exam. She had to see an ENT (who simply noted she has ear wax), a doctor for general poking/proding and review of her referral file, and a nurse for height/weight/temperature check. As I'm writing this I'm wondering what her height and weight were because I didn't even look or care at the time (and my metric conversion skills are lacking anyway). Then all the kids who are over 2 have to get a TB test. That didn't go over well for anyone in our group but they all got over it quickly. Libby didn't like it but mostly she wanted to keep showing everyone the band aid (which she did not like). Then we all returned to the hotel to finish paperwork to be ready for our consulate appointment which is on Tuesday morning. The rest of the day was free time and tomorrow (Sunday) is free as well. We ate lunch with another family from New York traveling with the mom, dad, 10 year old daughter previously adopted from China and family friend/god mother. Below are pictures of Libby waiting for her turn for medical exams. Libby was not very good at lunch - I'm sure she was tired (Grace says this is the excuse we make for Andrew whenever he is acting bad). Eating out is a challenge. Our plastic plates unfortunately did not make the packing cut. Glass plates at restaurants create "issues". Libby is very protective of her plate and food - she wants to control it and thinks you are going to sneak something away. So she pulls the glass plate to her far side of her chair or area and then when you panic and try to pull it back to make sure it doesn't all fall to the floor she . . . reacts. Strongly. I don't know why that I had decided from all the pictures and videos that she was a quite, shy, reserved personality. She is not. She laughs and giggles but has a 3-stooges type sense of humor and likes if things drop or crash. Or if she can be mischievous and offer you something and then revoke. And can she ever cut her eyes. WAY to the side when she is being silly. And I think I've even seen her roll them. She also is good at sharing her food and will offer (and actually give) cereal from her snack cup or pieces of her hot dog. She likes french fries too - and was eating them pretty good until I showed her how to dip in the ketchup and like many kids I've seen she then decided she just liked licking the ketchup off the fries. We both had long naps this afternoon, took a walk on the shopping street outside our hotel, and ordered room service. Libby likes to spend a long time in the eating process and she was quite happy with this set up. Below is a picture of the shopping street and Libby with her dinner. Pictures are not as good now because I no longer have Grace to be in charge of photography. Below are a few other pictures from our time in Nanjing.

Less Glares, More Smiles

Libby is giving us less glares and more smiles. Her mood seems to swing a bit and this morning is a bit more like Groundhog Day starting everything over but there is definite progress. I have been remiss in pointing out what we already knew but which is highlighted by this trip - Andrew is a miracle baby! He is just so good and easy. I'm sure he had some adjustments which he will never remember and be able to communicate with us - but we never really saw them. He didn't cry, he was happy to be with us and still is very easy going. He is doing great with Libby and we are trying to make sure he gets his share of attention. He is so tolerant of such a boring process of sitting in hotel rooms - and he doesn't like the food either! Below are some more pictures. Today our guide picks us up at 9:30am for a tour of a lake/park area. It is 7:30 am now.

China - Day 6 (Wednesday)

Yea - I made it back onto blogspot. And I have no clue why now it works. Today is a "free" day. And we have not done much, which is good. After naps we plan to walk to the city wall, about a 20 minute walk from the hotel. Below are some highlights backtracking over the last few days. Monday, May 20, our appointment at the Civil Affairs office was at 2 pm. Melody, our guide, picked us up at 1:45 for the short drive over to the offices. Libby and her nannies were already there waiting for us. A few other families were also waiting to receive their children. Libby was with her regular nanny, at least 2 other nannies from the orphanage and the orphanage director. She was dressed in a very fancy pink dress with lacy trim. I have a long video of meeting her, but not really any good pictures so I'll have to share the video later. She did not want to leave her nanny to go to us and cried. She was willing for us to hold her and was distracted by all the activities. We were able to ask the nannies a lot of questions with translation help from our guide. We got information about her usual daily schedule and some likes and dislikes. Our general sense after a few days is that she has had lots of attention and love and was very attached to her nanny. The first day with us Libby stared (glared?) at us quite a bit and did not show much emotion. She does not like to have her shoes removed and would screech if we tried to remove them. She would also make very clear any other things that we were doing wrong. But mostly we just got the stare. She took a nice nap with David and was quite willing for us to hold her and walk around. But general indifference to our existence. She has not wanted anything to do with the bottle. We talked to the nannies about that on Tuesday morning when we were back there. Our unanimous consensus is to forget the bottle and move on to a cup - but it is messy since she didn't really have any prior experience with that. She likes the snack cup we brought and is not willing to let go of it or any other things once they are "hers". She is a bit of a collector of things at this point. The first night she put a few food things in her mouth, but we figured out she was not swallowing - her version of a hunger strike. She was very thirsty by that night and drank water pretty well from a cup. Tuesday morning we went back to the Civil Affairs office and finalized the adoption proceedings - with red ink finger prints. Then Melody took us to the China Wal-Mart to get a stroller, diapers and other food supplies to get us through Friday - when we all leave for our next destinations. Today she is much better so we are making progress. She is quite enamored with Matthew and Grace and Grace had her giggling and laughing this morning. She slips a bit back into the glaring indifference but we can tell she definitely has a sweet side.

Arrived in Nanjing

Sunday afternoon we took the train from Shanghai to Nanjing. The train itself was great. The process of getting 5 people, 5 suitcases and multiple carry-on bags through the train station, to the right area, through the right doors, escalators and lots of people all who got up to get on the same train at the same time was pretty chaotic. I had been warned and it was not a surprise but still an endurance. It is Monday morning in Nanjing. Our guide will pick us up at 1:45 today to meet Libby! Here are some pictures from Shanghai. I haven't figured out formatting on this website so I can't seem to get spacing to work out properly. These are pictures of Nanjing Road, the river, the Bund, the Bund, the Tea House, and Andrew crashed asleep on Matthew's shoulders.