China...Part Two

We felt extremely fortunate on this particular trip to China. Not just because we stayed safe, had a nice time, were given the means to go,or that we were traveling with a lot of good people, although those are all good reasons for appreciating this trip. Additionally, we felt fortunate because Ellie has been doing so so so well...we were just so happy to see her smiles, hear her little laugh,and watch her interact with us and others.

After we met Ellie in Zhengzhou, we stayed there for several more days before we made a flight to Guangzhou. I, for one, was happy to leave and move on to the next city, mostly for air pollution and weather purposes. And, when walking down the street, we literally had to dodge scooters and bikes right and left, as they are everywhere: in the streets, pedestrian walks, sidewalks, etc. We took a flight to Guangzhou, the second leg of our journey, where we would stay for the remainder of the trip. Most people who adopt from China have to go to Guangzhou for the American consulate portion of the process, even if the baby is from somewhere else in the country, as was the case with us this time. So, our flight to Guangzhou was about two hours, and I sort of used this time as a small test to see how Ellie would do on an airplane (in part because, in the back of my mind, that long flight home was always looming), and she did OK. We arrived in Guangzhou late, met our guide, and were taken to the hotel, which was wonderful.

The next morning, we had to take Ellie for a brief medical exam as part of the immigration process. I was so thankful that this time, we did not need to repeat her immunizations before she could come to the U.S., which we had to do with Asher. The policy has changed back to the former method, where we instead just have to promise that we will immunize her. She otherwise had a basic medical exam, height and weight, and saw an ENT, who performed some basic hearing tests. I was curious as to his response, even though the whole thing was not terribly scientific. After his assessment, he turned to me and in broken English said, "she hear...a little," which was actually the same report we had gotten from her orphanage director when Russ visited. We had noticed this as well, that if we speak in a loud voice, she will turn and look, responding to her Chinese name. She also seems to notice when babies around her cry.

After the exam, she was declared healthy and we left to walk around for a bit. We were not staying in the same part of Guangzhou that we had been for our previous trips--Shamian Island. The main hotel there that many adoptive families use is currently closed for renovation, so we stayed off the island, even though we came back to visit and shop there. I still love the architecture and the feel of the place, which is different from the rest of the city.

A couple of days later, our group took at trip to the Guangzhou zoo, which was a great success. It was quite large, but there was a lot to see and Ellie seemed to pick up on a lot of it, pointing out many of the animals. Because it was just after New Year's day, there were a lot of people out who would normally be at work. We were also slightly harassed by a couple of park workers who followed our group with little bullhorns, shouting "do not feed the animals!" as if we were secretly trying to sneak them food. It was funny, at first...otherwise, it was a really nice day, the weather was great, and of course we saw a couple of pandas in the process.

We were starting to get to the point where we wanted to go home. Our hotel was lovely, we were doing fine, but I was missing my boys and really, living out of a suitcase does get old after a while. Still, we did get to spend time doing different things--some of it was similar to our last trip, while some of it was new. We went to the pearl market, walked around a huge pedestrian mall loaded with people, tried roasted chestnuts from a vendor on the street (delicious!) and ate at some different restaurants. My sister had emailed me early in the trip, updating me about how things were going at home. She closed by saying:

"Take care! And eat some weird food!"

This is my sister we're talking about, the true foodie, who tried all manner of organisms when she visited China with us two years ago. Without her, I was less brave for eating weird things, or maybe it was that I was getting homesick, which is probably why we also ordered pizza more than necessary. We did eat some delicious food on this trip. Of course, there were also times when I couldn't identify some of the food, as well (or, I could identify it but was not going anywhere near it. For instance, chicken feet found on the buffet).

A couple of days before leaving, we had our consulate appointment, which is when we finish up the paperwork for Ellie's visa to enter the U.S., thereby making her a citizen upon arrival. There's also this whole swearing-in ceremony that makes me tear up, every time. We were not allowed to take cameras into the seating area, and they even confiscated our GloWorm at the door, so we didn't get a lot of pictures of this time, important as it was.

I'm sure that I'm leaving so much out, although there is not nearly enough room to write it down (well, I could, but who would read it all?) By the time we were ready to head home, we packed our things, checked out of the hotel, and went to the train station, stopping to pick up the visa on the way. We took a train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, staying at the same hotel as when we first arrived on the trip. It was so strange to check in there for the night, a mere two weeks after our first stay, yet so much had changed!

The next day, we got up and went to the airport to fly out of Hong Kong, directly to Chicago, which took about 13 1/2 hours. Ellie did very well, but slept very little. We had several people sitting or standing around us who were interested in her and who asked us a lot of questions. I will also say this: I really do like the people of China--they are who they are without apology. What we sometimes consider rude, they are not even bothered by, yet so many people also seem curious and interested in westerners and they are not afraid to show it. As an example, we had some extra seats on the flight, so I moved at one point to give Russ more room to try and give Ellie a chance to sleep (which was unsuccessful, as it turned out). I brought my laptop over to a new seat and looked at pictures from our trip and of our boys, while the guy next to me leaned over and looked at every one with me, as if I had approached him and said, "hey, do you want to look at some of my pictures?" which, I did not, but that's all right. Others, also, came to us and asked a multitude of questions about Ellie and us, every time we stood up or walked around out of our seats, which was kind of nice, until the end when we all just wanted to land and be done with the whole thing. At least we can say that it wasn't boring.

We are so glad to be home. Actually, as I write this, it has been a week! The time has flown. The boys came with my parents to meet us at the airport and ran down the walkway to meet us. Asher, in particular, looked as if he was a foot taller--they both seemed so big compared to Ellie. All three have had their moments of adjustment this past week, obviously so, but we continue to be amazed at how well everyone is doing. Ash is back in preschool, Caleb is back to speech therapy, and Owen came home a few days after we did. Actually, Ellie hates Owen and seems really afraid of him, but that is for another post entirely....

It's good to be home, our family all together at last.

China...Part One

We're home. And things are going well, actually. If we could get over this jet lag it would probably just feel so normal around here already. Ellie moved right on into our home without looking back. This girl just fits in here like a glove. It's amazing!

As you can probably get from this late post, I was unable to write anything from China. I even thought that I had it figured out before we left, since we had problems when we traveled in 2010, but I was still wrong. It was so frustrating to get there and realize that I was stuck and would just have to wait.

We had a great trip, although it was hard to say good-bye to the boys. For their part, they did very well and through Skype, we were able to stay in contact with them the entire time. Plus, my sister sent several pictures of Christmas so we could see them opening presents and having a good time, which did my heart well. It was weird to be in China on Christmas. Although there were many pictures of Santa (actually, the same picture of Santa posted everywhere), the day felt commercial-only. Many people told us "Merry Christmas!" but I actually think they sort of thought that was what we wanted to hear, seeing that we were westerners. Still, it was an unforgettable Christmas, to be sure.

Russ and I flew to Hong Kong, spent one night, then flew to Beijing on Christmas Eve. It was an interesting experience to be out on a pedestrian mall on Christmas Eve in Beijing, which was so full of people that we were often shoulder-to-shoulder at times in the party atmosphere.

There was also some sort of holiday show going on in the lobby of our hotel, but overall, it was a quiet evening. The next morning, on Christmas Day, we got up to meet the rest of our group and to make another flight. We had opted out of touring Beijing this time, having done it twice before--not that it isn't a great city or anything. Since everyone else in our group had gone through the tour, they had already had a chance to spend a couple of days together before we arrived. We met everyone for the first time and let me just say, what a fantastic travel group we had! Seriously, we met some of the most wonderful families on this trip. We met those of various backgrounds: some having adopted before while for others, this was a first trip to China. Some families were brave enough to bring their children along while others, like us, had made the choice to let them stay behind. There is something about traveling with other families through this important time that seals a bond--not just anyone can say they have traveled halfway around the world together to meet their children at the same time. We were truly blessed by this group.

We flew to Zhengzhou--a city on the smaller side, we'd been told, of roughly 8 million people. You know, small. This place was the capitol of the province of where Ellie has been living since birth and like our previous adoptions, the babies were brought from various parts of the province to the capitol city to meet their new parents. We stayed at a lovely hotel, although I must admit, I had a difficult time here because of the air pollution. The country is not known for its clean air, that's for sure, and I thought I had encountered such pollution and tolerated it well before. But this time...it was just, bad. Taking a walk gave me a headache after a while and there was a perpetual "fog" outside that lasted throughout the day. I had worse problems here than when I went to Lanzhou four years ago, and that city is classified as one of the most polluted cities in the world.

Otherwise, the place was so remarkable and busy and this is where we met Ellie for the first time. The day after Christmas, we drove to the city's registration office where we waited for the babies to arrive.

Ellie was coming from Nanyang and traveling with three other kids as well. They brought her in and she was wearing a big, puffy coat that was new for her and she was just so...quiet. She just sat there and looked at us, back and forth, for the longest time, like she didn't know what to think at all. She didn't cry, she just appeared a little stunned. We had to stay in this room for quite a while, signing papers, and we had a chance to play with her. She started opening up after a few minutes, got down on the floor to play for a bit, and even smiled a few times when we gave her crackers.

We then took her back to the hotel and she stayed with us ever since. After the first night, we went back to the registration office and then the notary tomake the adoption official. The first few days are kind of a blur, and were spent adjusting to this new little person and going to appointments.

Russ had an opportunity to go with several other families to visit Ellie's orphanage in Nanyang, a trip that was about four hours one way. Although Ellie didn't actually live there much of the time, it was the place where she was originally placed before entering foster care. Additionally, most of the babies often return to the orphanages for regular visits and medical checks, so they knew who she was. The families that visited were allowed to see some of the rooms that housed other babies, waiting for families or those receiving medical care while there.

Ellie had lived in foster care for roughly 16 months, from what we can tell. I believe she was about three months old when she entered her foster home, and she lived with the same family the entire time, which is wonderful and also sad. Wonderful because this gives her roots as to the concept of family, sad because they really seemed to care for her and although it was a temporary situation, it was hard to break them up. We also found out during this trip that she had a foster brother who is the same age and was adopted at the same time by one of the families traveling with us. Because we spent time with the families, the two kids still got to see each other, even though they had both left the foster home. It was obvious that they were used to spending time together, and they played and chattered away together like brother and sister. Fortunately, the other family lives only about three hours from us, so hopefully, we will see them again so that Ellie can continue to have that friendship with someone she obviously bonded with at such an early age. In the meantime, it has also prepared her for her own brothers, who she met upon arrival home....

I'm going to stop here because there is still so much to say. I'll include it in the next post and add pictures to Facebook but suffice it to say that...so far, so good!