Guangzhou

We've made it to Guangzhou.  Today we will get E's physical examination and TB test done, and drop off some laundry (thank goodness).

We are staying in the China Hotel and it is schwanky.

Yes that is a full window from the potty all the way to the bedroom.

Schwanky.

Add caption

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen is considered the father of Modern China.

Today was another sight seeing day. We went to the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum. It is a lot of stairs, which sounds like it wasn;t enjoyable, but it was very nice. I learned, however, that a black baby carrier in the hot sun is very hot. Baby was hot and unhappy. We had to take her out and carry her in our arms.

Two things happened overnight. Baby found her voice. She was absolutely silent on Monday and Tuesday, yesterday we got some crying, but today she has more vocalizations. No true words, but no more silence. She will sometimes say bye bye. The other change was a sudden mommy preference. No more holding by daddy or playing with him. It is another good bonding step, but makes the days more challenging. I keep telling myself someday everyone will go to college and I can go to the bathroom alone.

Here's a few extra pics of our hotel and the Confucious temple...

Our Hotel, the Mandarin Garden

The quay along the river across from the Temple

...and the City Gate of Nanjing.

and a gratuitous baby shot:

Today was a free day and we went sight seeing. We went to the Confucius Temple grounds this morning, but not the temple itself, early, since E thought a good wake up time would be 5 am. It is close to the hotel we are at. We have actually walked over there several times, but finally took the camera today. It is usually very crowded with tourists and hawkers. People pay to put these red ribbons onto a gold tree. I'm not sure why, but it is really pretty.



The grounds are near a river and the dragons are on the wall across from the temple. It is suppose to be very pretty at night, with lights and lanterns.

We also went to the city gate, which is pretty much what it sounds like, an ancient city gate. The bricks have sayings or poetry written on them.

Happy Baby! We are having a pretty good day. E has turned into a velcro baby, and is not very happy away from mom. But, she does still let dad hold her and play with her, giving mom some breaks. She is grumpy at sleep times and will pitch a royal fit about laying down. She is also eating a little better today. She had pretty much only done bottles since we received her Monday, but today she ate quite a bit at breakfast and lunch. We still are not sure what to feed her and even bought some baby food. Shopping in the chinese markets is always a challenge. We thought we bought some mushed up pears. There were lovely pears on the jar. And lots of chinese text. What we really got was pear juice (which has been summarily rejected by the princess). We did better on our second run and came home with actual baby food, which was thought yummy at dinner but blech at breakfast.




We've been working on this adoption for almost 19 months. I bought this bib for Uncle Don probably half way through the process. It used to say he was hot and single, but we had to alter that to hot and taken. You still owe her a quarter.

The Adoption is Final.

Signing papers in triplicate with thumbprints

We went to the adoption office again today to sign the final paperwork and get Eleanor's official adoption certificate.  She woke this morning unsure of her surroundings but being very brave about her situation.

She's still unsure about what is happening around her, but there is good evidence that she was very loved and we expect that the bonding will be strong when it happens.  The experience of us and others is that well cared-for children have an easier time transferring the bonding to their parents.

Tickle tickle.

We look like we're testifying before congress

More tickle tickle

At left, the orphanage director, to the right, the man who handles adoption paperwork.  We traded email addresses, so we can send photos of her college graduation in 2031

Here she is folks.

Walking into the building

Family

Learning about the iPhone

We have finally met the precious baby E. We headed to the civil affairs office around three pm. We got there about eight minutes early and while we were waiting, baby E came in with the director. We spent probably a half hour there. She fell asleep in my arms. Poor thing was so tired. We had to wake her up for an official photo. Then we headed back to the hotel, then to the market for formula. She is still on bottles and takes about four a day. She eats congee and rice, too. Right now, she is playing with daddy while I type. It's been a smooth transition so far. She is laughing and smiling and makes excellent eye contact. She lets daddy hold her. I think it was the iPhone that won her over.

Here

We have made it to Nanjing. Settling in at the hotel. It feels weird not getting the baby today, having time to recover from the jet before becoming new parents. We"ll venture out in a little while for provisions--coke, water, all the important things in life! We get baby E tomorrow at 3 pm, which is like 2 am central time.

Almost there…

Just a quick post here to say that we made it to China. Sitting in the Guangzhou airport waiting for our last flight. Once we're settled in at our hotel and we've met Sara our guide, we'll send a proper post.
Hope you all had a great July 16th! We didn't get one.

And we are off!! Please pray we have safe travels, make all our connections, it doesn't rain in Houston and for the big kids as they stay here. Hopefully our next post will be from Nanjing!

We are finally leaving for China this week. It has really sunk in today and I'm going in to freak out mode. The kids may have a long week with their crazy mom. I have about three lists going right now--packing list, to do list, second packing list for the kids. I like lists and crossing things off.

A lot has happened in the last six weeks or so. It has in many ways been a very difficult time. We have gone from excitedly planning to adopt two more little ones to only adopting one. We have felt devastated and lost, but in it all, we know that God is sovereign, and although this is not what we wanted or planned, there is peace knowing we are where God wants us to be.

We will plan to blog from China, so please join us as we add one more little one to our family!

And now some completely unrelated photos:

Psalms 139:14-17

"I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eye saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of the came to be." (emphasis mine)

The babies have limb differences. E will need an amputation on the left and, at a minimum, reconstruction on the right, if not full amputation. P may need some surgery on his hand to improve function. K is legally blind. J had a surgery around one year of age. All considered waiting children in the world of adoption. Waiting on someone to become their family. A few among literally thousands. Children born less than perfect in a world that values perfection. Yet God was not shocked upon their entering the world. He didn't scratch His head and wonder why E does not have a full complement of leg bones. He didn't count P's fingers and toes and with surprise, find a number less than 20. He created them, in His image, as beautiful and wonderful. He ordained their days.

The pastor told a story this morning about being nauseated upon seeing a malformed, aborted fetus. Grotesque, unnatural. Followed by the thought of "who could love something like that?". Yet someone did. That child may well have been the hoped for offspring of excited parents, who loved them from the moment they learned of the pregnancy and who grieved their loss. And God does. As terrible and awful as we think it is, God, the creator, loved that child as much as any other. Who are we judge the value of what God has made?

We have been blessed beyond measure with the wonderful creations in our home.

Hmm, it would seem my new resolve for consistent blogging did not last very long. I have turned on the full comment moderation mode. I've gotten some spam comments, which on one hand seems quite odd. Wouldn't you want to spam a blog that is at least somewhat consistently posted to? The audience around here is well, probably quite small.

I suppose I should post a recent update on the adoption front. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of two LOA (letter of acceptance, China's final approval of our dossier). That's right, two! We have a referral for a 16 month old boy in addition to our 19 month old girl. We are pretty excited about having two little ones running around the house this summer. J is all ready to be the big sister and feed bottles and rock them. If only I can convince her that diaper duty is loads of fun...

Well, I'm thinking I may relaunch the blog and maybe have the consistency to keep it up. Well, at least when we travel again I will keep it up. So, here's a short update of our lives.

We are once again Dossier to China (DTC)!! Woohoo!! We have been matched with a beautiful girl who is currently 18 months old. We are hoping to travel around May. We are also hoping to get a second match since china is now allowing simultaneous adoptions of unrelated children.


J has started school this year. Everyone (including me) survived her first day of school. She mostly loves it, but loves skipping more! You can see how excited she was on the first day of school!

K is partially mainstreamed this year. He is doing remarkable well in his class. He still requires a lot of assistance, but we are making progress.

We had a really wonderful Christmas. We made our traditional gingerbread houses and cookies. We got to have Christmas dinner with both sets of grandparents and got spoiled rotten with all our new toys.

Okay, maybe my next attempt at posting will be more verbose.

Today we celebrated three years with J. It still feels like yesterday we were missing our flight to China and arriving a few hours before meeting our baby.

April 2, 2007
We still have that packet of kleenex she has the death grip on.

April 2, 2008
Notice she's wearing the same blanket sleeper for the photograph.

April 2, 2009
Arriving home from our trip to China to adopt brother

April 2, 2010

The happy princess