TTFN

I think I will start a new blog. That is, if I decide to keep up the blogging thing. It's hard to find the time, yet it's a great way to record and remember all the craziness of life.

So for now, here are a few recent pictures to end the story of our journey to Kate Xue Er.

Accident Prone

Kate has no fear: she's running jumping, climbing.... and falling. We are hoping she gets her land legs soon.

Settling In

Goodbye, China!

If all goes well we should arrive home in Spokane at 12:48 p.m. Sat. Aug 2, on Alaska flight 692. Please pray for a safe and timely journey for us (and that we don't have a repeat of our last journey across the ocean with a new baby). xoxo, everyone! We love you and miss you.

One more day

This will be my second to last post in Guangzhou. It's early in the morning here. We keep forgetting to take pictures, so we will definitely have to do that today since we leave early tomorrow morning!

The U.S. Consulate appointment is at 3 p.m. today, where Kate will get sworn in as a U.S. citizen. That is the last thing we have to do before coming home.... home sweet home!!!

Yesterday we went to the White Swan for a little appetizer and glass of wine. They had a Washington State chardonnay, which I was very excited about. I ordered a glass without checking the price. Oops! It was $26.60 US dollars for that one glass of wine. Ouch. It still pains me to think about it. Randy fell off his chair when he saw the price. Our waitress felt bad and gave us 30 RMB in food vouchers (about $4.50 USD).

Kate is enamored with the picture of Tucker (our dog). She opens her little book to his page and smothers him with kisses. Hopefully she will feel the same in person when he is trying to lick her face!

Guangzhou

We made it safely to Guangzhou and checked into the Victory Hotel last night. Our flight was at 5:30 from Chongqing and they served a very nice dinner on the plane.

Today we took Kate to the medical exam. She is 23 pounds. Healthy baby! We are still figuring out her clothing size--it seems to be pretty hit and miss. Today she is wearing a Gymboree 12-18 mos. that used to be Isabel's, and it fits pretty well.

We had lunch in the Deli at the White Swan and then strolled over to the park to play a bit. It is exactly as we remember it! Isabel is impressed with the waterfall and all the big fish at the White Swan.

We will get some pictures of Guangzhou tomorrow or maybe this afternoon. It's nap time now!

Last days in Chongqing

Heading for Guangzhou today, as soon as we get Kate's passport. It will be nice to get a change of scenery...
We discovered Kate can drink from a straw. We wanted to see what she would do so we held a tall drink of juice up to her with a straw. She latched on and sucked the entire drink down. whoa! That was a little messy later on. Too much apple juice at one time is not a good thing.
She can also put on her own shoes. It takes her about 20 minutes, but she does not give up easily!
We've had a little American food, and she is not impressed. She prefers to throw it on the floor or hand spit out pieces to us. Nice! I guess we can supplement with ramen noodles when we get home.
Isabel and I (Julie) have been able to get some one-on-one time in the swimming pool. I brought a floaty that Julie L. gave me before we left. It is perfect!!

Friday pictures--other parts of city

Top 10 things...

...to do in hotel room with 4 people for 7 days while in Chongqing China:

10. Watch teenage Japanese game shows
9. Entertain 19 month old with the same and only 4 toys you can fit in your suitcase
8. Bypass 007 movie on Cinemax in favor of National Geographic channel because 5 year old also likes TV
7. Play dress-up
6. Drink warm Heineken
5. Read novel, if you remembered to bring one written in English
4. Watch Caillou video for the 15th time
3. Spend 10 minutes ordering spaghetti with no sauce from room service
2. Wonder how you will get through the day on the strict toilet paper rations
1. Yoga!

We went to visit Chongqing Children’s Welfare Institute on Friday. It is about an hour drive from the hotel, across the Yangtze River. Chongqing is a gigantic city. Most of the drive looked the same as what we see from our hotel, but as we got closer we drove through some pretty poverty stricken areas. It is such a contrast to see the crumbling old buildings and people sitting in old shacks after walking through the malls with Givenchy, Calvin Klein, and all those fancy designers. The young 20ish people in the city center are all smartly dressed and go out to dinner, to movies, and ice skating in the evening. There are two different worlds here.

At the orphanage we were taken upstairs to the area Kate spent most of her time. They showed us her bed and the playroom. The nannies sit on the floor with the babies for playtime. The ratio is great: One nanny to every three babies. Half the Sky Foundation makes this level of care possible. It is great to see the results of their hard work. We were there before lunch and got to see all the babies playing. They are all so sweet! The staff told us they are all special needs children.

Kate was excited at first to see familiar faces. She ran over to a couple nannies and started showing off her new clothes. Our guide translated for us—Kate said to them, “look at my pretty shirt.” Our new daughter loves sparkles and anything fancy. So cute! But later when we went into the crib room Kate started freaking out; crying, kicking, etc. It took quite a while to calm her down.

We asked about a little 4-year old girl that another family is adopting next month. The family had asked me to check on her if at all possible. The family just got their approval to travel to China, so the staff allowed us to see her. She came downstairs with one of her teachers from the preschool. When she saw us she started crying—she knows her family is coming soon. Her teacher calmed her down by telling her we were not her family, and that we were just checking on her for them. It is so scary to leave everything you’ve ever known, even if it is living in an orphanage with no family.

After the orphanage we drove to the location Kate was found. We will keep that private for Kate to hear first when she gets older, but I can tell you we had the most amazing experience. It is beyond anything I could have ever imagined.

"Yay," says Kate!

Thursday July 24

Thursday morning we all gathered for breakfast and some paperwork. Both Kylie and Kate like congee and tried different foods. After finishing the paperwork and giving our guide everything she needed to process our adoptions, we just relaxed in the room and played. Randy headed over to the supermarket with Mike. They had quite the little adventure. First they tried to go into the store through the wrong doors. For some reason that made a guard very suspicious, so he followed them the whole time they were in the store. Then, Mike tried to get a few bananas from the huge bunches they have there. As he reached over to tear a few from the bunch, a woman started yelling at him. Very confusing! He somehow managed to convey to her what he wanted, and she took her special scissors out and cut them for him. As he started to walk towards the checkout stand, she yelled, “Hey!” and kept shouting. Huh? Well, in China, they weigh the produce and give you a special price tag that you take to the counter with you to pay. We are figuring all this out slowly.

We headed back to the CAB at 1:15 to process our adoptions. It all went very smoothly, especially compared to last time. Wow-what a difference! We got our adoption certificate picture in just one take! It was extremely hot outside and inside the office. We were sweating everywhere. Ugh. The first few days were uncharacteristically cool here, so we got a little spoiled. So, we are now officially the new parents of Kate XueEr. Our guide is trying to teach us how to pronounce her name. It is “Shweh-Er.” We use it a bit because that is what Kate responds to right now. She can say “MaMa” and “Xie Xie” (thank you). Those are all the words we recognize, but she talks quite a bit. We just don’t understand Chinese!

Later in the day after naptime Kate had a little trouble. She woke up, looked around, and realized she was still with us strange people in this strange place. She then cried off and on the rest of the evening. Poor girl! She allows us to comfort her, and we do our best. She is grieving the loss of her nannies and everything she knows, so it is to be expected. Isabel has been really great through everything, and a big helper. She also has been sharing her sticker books with Kate, which is a very big deal. I’m very proud of her.
Today, Friday, we will visit Chongqing Children’s Home.

more pics

Wednesday July 23

I’m writing this on Friday morning (my computer is still set for U.S., so my posts record in U.S. time). The last two days have been a whirlwind of activity. On Wednesday afternoon we went to the Civil Affairs Bureau (CAB) to meet Kate. We walked in, and there she was, playing with her caregivers. With Isabel, the last time we adopted, we had to wait in a room and they brought her in, and I thought it would be the same--so I was totally surprised. I recognized Kate immediately. She looks exactly the same as her pictures. She came right to me and was very interested in all of us. I think she is quite the little socialite. But, when it came time for her nanny to leave without her, it was a different story. She has powerful lungs and she cried for a long time.
There is just one other family traveling with us (Jen and Mike), so it all went pretty quickly. They got their little girl, Kylie, and we headed back to the hotel. Randy and Isabel headed out for some take out from the food court and Kate and I hung out in the room and played with toys and snuggled. She did really well the first night. She loves all kinds of food and is not at all picky about her bottle. Her caregivers told us she has a bottle in the morning and one before bed, so we will stick with that for a while to ease her transition. But she definitely needs to be weaned from the bottle. She is HUGE. Good thing it is summer, because it is pretty hard to get pants on her. I gave the cute capris I brought to Kylie, because I couldn’t pull them up over Kate’s legs. She’s a healthy girl.
We also found out that Kate has been part of a program called Half the Sky. It is a fantastic program started by an adoptive U.S. mom that helps orphans all over China. They go in and teach the nannies how to care for the children. We have sponsored a child through that program since January 2007, which is coincidentally when Kate was born! The nanny gave us a beautiful memory book with pictures of Kate from 10 days old to now. There are also handprints and footprints in the book. It is a wonderful gift! I feel very blessed and am so thankful.

Tuesday

We ventured out to find a grocery store today. I definitely felt culture shock. There were so many people everywhere. To cross the street you have to walk right in front of traffic, kind of weaving through the cars—a little nerve racking to say the least, especially with your 5-year old daughter in tow. But, that is how they do it here.
EVERYONE stares at the three of us, but they stare at Isabel most of all. It is very uncomfortable, so I think I have to take my outings in small doses. It will be interesting to see how they stare after we get Kate.
There are many children here, and unlike the media portrays in the U.S., there seems to be equal amounts of boys and girls. We are right next to the city center and a large mall, and I saw a lot of families shopping with their kids.
Isabel wanted grilled cheese for lunch today. Instead, yes, you guessed it, she had more rice! This time with a little roast duck. There is a food court connected to our hotel. Very handy.
We are all excited to meet Kate tomorrow (and a little nervous). Our appointment at the Civil Affairs Bureau is at 2 p.m. They do marriages in the morning, and adoptions in the afternoon. We tracked down the other family—they are due to arrive sometime this evening. Hopefully they get here safely.
Later: We went out again, this time with a little ammo. Armed with a camera, the staring wasn’t as bad. I just held it up as we walked along and pretended to shoot multiple pics. It worked like magic! My new secret weapon… with the added benefit of pics to post to the blog.

Unfortunate Delay

Hey Everyone, thought I'd give this blogging thing a go as well. Might be good to see this experience through two sets of eyes!
We spent the night last night in the Chongquing Forest. That's apparently what the locals call it because there are so many tall skinny skyscrapers that it looks like a giant forest! It is VERY smoggy and hot/humid.
We made it through the Guangzhou airport experience yesterday without getting lost or arrested, so I guess that was a tremendous success. The new airport there is very nice and easy to navigate. We all are happy to have our first round of flights out of the way and have an opportunity to do a little "nesting".
On a sad note, it looks like there was a miscommunication about when the other family in our travel group is arriving. That means we won't get to meet Kate until a day later :-( . Hopefully that is the worst thing that will happen on this trip. When I go through experiences like this, when so many things are out of my control, it forces me to truly trust in the Lord's plan. Only He is in control of what is going on here! Can't think of a better person to rely on, can you?
Thanks for your prayers and God bless!
Randy

Chongqing

Isabel is in rice and noodle heaven. So far all the food we've had has been terrific. Yesterday we had lunch at the airport before our flight. Noodles and beef in a big bowl of soup. Yum! The waitress was very friendly and I think enjoyed showing off her excellent English language skills.
Our flight to Chongqing was uneventful. The hotel is okay. We switched rooms three times when we got here. I'm sure they think we are crazy Americans. The hardest part so far is communicating. So far we aren't doing too well with that. Maybe it will get better.
The other family in our travel group didn't show up at the time our agency told our guide they would be here. So, I suppose they are lost. Today we will try to find them!

We're Here

It's Monday morning in Guangzhou. A little foggy and about 80 degrees outside. Not too bad!
Our flights went smoothly yesterday. Thanks for all your prayers--they really helped. When we arrived at the Spokane airport to check in our very first flight had been canceled. yikes. Luckily, Jody (Holly's neighbor) was there to save the day. She got us on an earlier flight (yay for being early!), and we got to Seattle just in time to catch our flight to Tokyo.
Tokyo--wow! We were only at the airport, but it was so tranquil there. Almost surreal. Everyone was really quiet and friendly and they just processed us through everything very calmly with great proficiency. We hung out for about an hour and then caught our flight to Guangzhou.
Still a little sleepy today, but we all got some great shut-eye last night at our hotel. It is very nice here. There is a tap in the bathroom that says "potable water"--hope we were okay to trust it. Beds very comfortable--European style.
Right now Randy is doing a little yoga to start the day, and Isabel is eating Cheerios and kool-aid. Mmmm-healthy! Our flight to Chongqing is at 3 p.m. Then we can settle down in one place for about a week to do all the adoption paperwork.
One last word about our N*W flight--Wonderful! Pleasant flight attendants, good movies, good food, ice cream bars, cookies, water, etc. They took good care of us. Our little traveler did great!!

Getting close...

Tomorrow is the day! We leave Saturday, July 19, and return home Saturday, August 2. Our agency emailed us yesterday and said we will get Kate on Tuesday the 22nd at around 2 p.m. (the day keeps changing). That's one day earlier than previously expected. We are ready! Some very excellent friends have given us fun toys and games for the airplane ride and for when we get to China. Isabel has tested all the new baby toys and she says they are loads of fun.
Kammi will be taking good care of Tucker and our house while we are gone. Hopefully Tuck stays out of trouble... we will see.
We are still undecided on bringing the laptop. I think it will depend on how the packing plays out. If we need more room, the laptop is out. Which of course will be detrimental to this blog. But how serious am I about it anyway? Not a huge priority for me. We will see!
Love to everyone!

Good News From Afar

We have our TA from China, which means that we can move forward with travel plans. Our agency is working on getting appointments for us. We might leave as soon as next week!!

In the meantime, also because we now have our TA, a wonderful woman that I met via cyber-space was just visiting Chongqing and was able to see Kate. She took a few pictures for us. The pictures we had at referral were from last January. We now have pictures from Tuesday!!! So happy! Thank you, Xiao Qin's mommy!!