Guangzhou

Friday October 14 was a sad day for us.  Stephanie had to leave us early in the morning to head back to Boston.  We feel so fortunate that she was able to spend a week with us and for Claire to get a taste of what a wonderful Jie Jie (Big Sister) Steph is.  We also left Jinan where we made a lot of wonderful memories, the most important of which is that is where we met Claire! 

We flew from Jinan to Guangzhou.  We stayed at the Victory Hotel which is on Shamian Island.  It was our favorite spot we stayed in China.  It is a quaint spot in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Guangzhou.  The Island was easily walkable even for Kevin.  There are lots of shops for souvenirs and while they are probably more money than going into the city, the people that own the shops were so kind to us and our children that we didn’t mind spending a little extra.  We made friends with many of them and really will miss seeing them every day.               

                                                                                                                                         We did do some local shopping through the markets(which were interesting for the types of things they were selling) and visited the Safari Park.  The Safari Park was pretty neat, but the kids were just fried and so the day wasn’t as great as we’d hoped.  But we’ve been here 14 days and on the whole they have been troopers so they get a little grace for a bad day!   The Pandas were amazing and everyone perked up when we got to their exhibit.

While in Guangzhou we completed all the US requirements for our adoption.  Claire underwent a physical examination, which included a TB test.  On the 18th we had our appointment with the US Consulate.  There we took an oath that the paperwork we filled out was true and correct.  We signed paperwork to apply for Claire’s Visa which was approved.  The end result of all of this work is that the minute we are wheels down in Seattle, Claire is a US Citizen!!  When they told us that at the US Consulate, I teared up.  This is the culmination of approximately a year of paperwork and prayer to bring Claire home.  I can’t believe that we are finally to this point!

As I type this we are on the road to Hong Kong and will fly out early in the morning for home.  We’ve been looking at pictures and are amazed that this wonderful trip is over.  With that said we are looking forward to getting home, getting back to our routine, sleeping in our own beds and eating some of our regular favorite food.  First up . . . .Tacos!!

And by the way, in case you were wondering . . . .Claire is fitting in just fine!!  Yes, those are her underwear on her head!

ZaoZhuang Part 2

After our orphanage visit and tour of the site of the first battle between the Chinese and Japanese during World War II, we were treated to lunch.

I use the term “treated” lightly here because what really happened is we were wined and dined.  We thought that we would be having lunch with Director Lu and a couple of his staff members.  We arrived at a restaurant that was floating on a lake.  We had an idea at that point, that we were in for something special.

We were taken to a large, private room.  Our guide and Director Lu talked for some time and pointed at many seats.  It became clear that a seating arrangement was being put together.  At first we were told that we were being hosted by the Director of Civil Affairs from ZaoZhuang who had joined us earlier in the day.  As it turned out we were actually being hosted by the Director of Civil Affairs from the city where the restaurant was located.  Kevin and I were seated next to our host with Director Lu on his other side.  The rest of the family was to our right and the assistant Director of Claire’s Orphange, staff and others were to the left.  In all there were approximately 17 people seated around this huge table.  This was clearly a very big deal!

We were warmly welcomed by our host and he stated that he didn’t know what kind of Chinese food we liked so he ordered many things and hoped we liked what would be served.  He assured us that we would not offend him if we did not.  Then the food began arriving.  I wish we had taken a photo of all the food that was served, but that seemed rude.  Suffice it to say that if you can imagine it, it was served.  We tried many new foods, my favorite of which is Lotus.

After eating for a few minutes, the toasting began.  There were many toasts to Kevin and me, our family, to me, to our host . . . .Kevin and I were drinking beer as were many others.  Some were drinking a local wine.  Glasses were raised and as is our custom, unless you are in college, we sipped our drinks after each toast.  After about the 4th toast, I was told “Bottoms Up!”  I could tell that the men were skeptical of whether I was up to the task.  The glasses were small wine glasses and as a good Montana girl I met the challenge to their delight.

Our lunch went on for approximately 2 hours when we were told that they were cognizant that we had to take the train back to Jinan and probably should finish up.  Many pictures were taken, business cards were exchanged and we were ready to leave a wonderful lunch.  This is a picture of our host, Director Lu and the Director from ZaoZhuang.  

Director Lu offered to take us to see the new orphanage and we eagerly agreed.  It was a long drive but the new orphanage is very nice.  The construction was mostly completed although it didn’t look like finish work was done on the inside yet and there was landscaping to do.  We were told that they were awaiting government approval to move in.  The currently orphanage houses about 50 children.  The new one will house approximately 500!  

We left the new orphanage and headed for the train station.  We said goodbye to Director Lu who, it is clear, is a very kind man and has Claire’s best interests at heart.  Claire is clearly fond of him, but I had to tell her to look back one more time to wave goodbye.  Our girl is so ready to be with us and to put her former life behind her.

It was a wonderful day and one we never will forget.

ZaoZhuang

On Thursday morning we were up early to make our trip to ZaoZhuang where Claire's orphanage is located.

We had been anticipating this trip for a long time but wasn't entirely sure that we were going to get to go. When we got our final itinerary, it was listed and I was told that it was confirmed. This was a very big deal because Claire is only the second child from the orphanage to be adopted internationally. Our friends, the Dotsons, were not allowed to visit when they came to get their son, so I wasn't counting on it until we were actually there. 

We made the trip by train which was a really great experience. We were met at the train station by the assistant director of the orphanage and one of Claire's nannies. It took about 45 minutes to get to the orphanage and when we arrived there were many people outside awaiting our arrival.



They had cameras and seemed genuinely happy we were there. We were escorted upstairs to a nice conference room where we were served fruit and the director, Mr. Lu gave us the history of the orphanage. We talked for some time and then headed for a brief tour. We saw some of the rooms in which Claire spent her time.



We also were allowed to visit the babies that were there. We were not allowed to bring the kids or take pictures. This was heartbreaking because we knew that these children were considered "too disabled" to be adopted. The sadness of it was overwhelming, but at the same time we know that Director Lu and his staff are very good, kind people who give care to their children that is just not available in larger orphanages. Soon after leaving these rooms, we left the orphanage. Many of the nannies had tears but Claire was ready to go.

Director Lu had planned a lovely day for us. We were taken to a city monument that commemorated the first battle between the Chinese and Japanese during the second world war.



It was an amazing place with beautiful architecture including a spectacular temple.



After a couple of hours there, we left for Lunch which was an adventure and deserves it's own post and pictures!!

China Update

Hi,

Well, it's been an interesting day since I last posted, so I thought I'd better update you. The last couple of days have been amazing. We have done and seen so much that it is hard to explain all that has happened. 

Starting with the most important: Claire.



She is the bravest soul I have ever met! She has faced this whole ordeal with such anticipation and excitement. And, even when things weren't going as well as we hoped, not once did she turn and run. We made a trip to her orphanage and she didn't want to go, but said that she would, to say goodbye, and then she was leaving. She is telling Chinese people that she is a foreigner from the USA. She dangled her toes in a swimming pool for a couple of minutes and then jumped in with all kinds of excitement. When we walked through security at the airport, she said goodbye to the only person in our group with whom she could completely communicate never looking back and with a huge smile on her face. 

It hasn't been all rainbows and angels singing, there has been A LOT of testing and acting out, but it is clear that she has been prepared to have a family, whatever that means, and there is no going back. I have shown pictures of her and said "I think she looks like she has spunk." I was so right and it is one of the things that I love about her. The last 2 days she has really been fun and our day ended tonight with playing games, snuggling and her taking pictures of she and I making funny faces. 

Now to our other adventures: Wednesday the 12th we had a free day so we decided to do some sightseeing. We were still in Jinan, the provincial capital of Shandong Province. Jinan is famous for their natural springs. We went to visit this area called Bau Tu Springs. It was beautiful! Lots of old Chinese architecture.



Beautiful springs



and people who treated Catherine like a rock star.



If I had $5.00 for every person who wanted to take her picture or have their picture(or child's picture) taken with her, I'd have had the whole trip paid for and then some! Later in the day we went to Dao Ming Lake. 

This is in the center of Jinan and was also a really beautiful walk.



We took a boat ride that reminded me of the River Walk in San Antonio. Here is where Catherine began teaching Claire the fine art of wrapping daddy around your finger. I think she already has mastered "The Look."



We headed to bed early as we had to be up to meet our guide at 5:15 a.m. to head to ZaoZhuang for Claire's Orphanage visit.

Day 2 with Claire

Today was a busy day as we had to go to the Civil Affairs Office and the Notary Office. We signed a bunch of official looking documents, all in Chinese. So I'm trusting our guide ShaoLi (Missy) that we didn't just agree to repay the US debt to China! Even Claire had to participate in this most important paperwork.



After it was all done, we had to take pictures with Director Lu, his staff and the lady that helped us at Civil Affairs.



The lady with the short hair, one of Claire's caregivers, teased Claire that she should come back to the orphanage with her. Claire declared "No! I am staying with them!" Claire is a sweet girl and clearly has a mind of her own. She is already testing us and it is challenging to redirect her behavior when she doesn't understand English. She is brave beyond words, she pretty much got in the pool today with very little hesitation. She loves to do hair and fancies herself quite the beautician. Hours were spent today working on Catherine, ShaoLi and Stephanie's hair. This is one of her creations.



Someone has allowed her to use electronics as she seems to be relatively skilled at the use of an iPad and computer. I've got to figure out how to lock my iMac screen. Tomorrow is a bit of a quiet day for us. Nothing in particular is scheduled so we are going to go do some sightseeing and a little shopping with Stephanie. On Thursday we are going to Claire's Orphanage in ZaoZhuang. Director Lu also wants to show us around the city. He is a very kind man and clearly loves the children. He is being so very generous with his time with us and we are really looking forward to the day with him. It will be good to see where Claire has been and we are hoping for more information and pictures of her. To Be Continued . . . . .

Got Her!!!

I never thought it would, but today finally came!  We were nervous, excited, impatient and thrilled all at the same time.

Claire, her caretaker and the director of the orphanage were supposed to arrive at 10 a.m.  Our guide, Missy, met us at 9 so we could get gifts and orphanage donations prepared.  10:00 came and went and we learned that the fog/smog/rain was slowing down travel and that Claire was car sick so they had to stop for medicine. They said they would arrive at 10:30 . . . .which became 11:00.  They finally got here at 11:30.  

Claire is a little, bitty girl (as you look at the picture below, remember she is 13 months older than Catherine). But she is full of personality.  She has dimples for miles and has a beautiful smile. 

Claire was well prepared.  She clearly is ready to be part of a family.  We called her BeiBei and as soon as Director Lu left she said, "No my name is Claire Elizabeth."  She started calling us Mamma and BaBa right away.  She sad on my lap fairly quickly.  She and the kids have been holding hands 

 

and she has been doing Catherine's hair. 

More importantly (I guess) she is already testing us.  Or I guess I should say she is testing me.  We went to dinner and she decided she didn't like the food and wanted something else.  I said no.  She tried crawling under the table and staying out of reach of either of us.  That happened a couple of times.  She is actually a bit bossy and seems used to being in charge.  But she is also adorable, and fitting right in.  She seems really anxious to learn English.  We went to Walmart and she picked out 2 things for learning English.  By the way, this girl has no trouble saying what she wants!  And she is really smart.  She saw a Barbie and came up to me to ask for it.  I hesitated, clearly leaning towards no and so she said "I'm going to ask daddy."  He, of course, said yes!  

For those of you that haven't gone back to the beginning, Claire's best friend Tai (Long Long) lives near us and we learned of her from his mom.  So, today we were able to Skype so that they could see each other.  It was also really great because Director Lu and the caretaker were able to see Tai who they clearly miss very much.

Today we had to sign paperwork that we agreed to care for Claire and that if we didn't want her that we would promise to bring her back.  Tomorrow we go to the civil affairs office and start the paperwork to formalize Claire's adoption.  The lawyer in me understands why this all needs to happen.  The mother in me just wants to get all my kids home.  

So, in a nutshell, that is Gotcha Day.  Everyone is asleep, exhausted from the emotions of the day.  Tomorrow promises to be a new adventure!

Last Day in Shanghai

We have spent 3 days in Shanghai. Today is our last day and we head to Jinan tomorrow. We are going by high speed train and still it will take us about 4 hours to get there. China is HUGE!!!

Yesterday, we spent the morning looking for a bank to exchange some money and checking out the area around our hotel. In the afternoon we met our guide, Summer, and went to a digit market to get me a camera. We met with great success and turned our sights to an electronic translator. We didn't find what we were looking for so we will keep looking. We decided to take in an acrobat show. The kids were exhausted(we all were) and fell asleep during the first 1/2 so we left at intermission. We had not previously scheduled our driver and Summer to be with us, so we took cabs and I had visions of the headline "American dies in Chinese Traffic." The concept of red lights, walk signs, lanes or signaling a lane change is completely foreign to the Chinese. And the horns . . . Kevin says if he was a government official here he would make it his mission to outlaw horns. I think I agree. Our new friend Sun Chuan, who was going to intern at my office last summer and live with us, came from Nanjing to see us. It was great to meet him in person. He spent several hours with us and we are hoping that perhaps next summer we will see him in the US.

Today we went to Luke's orphanage. There were so many emotions today for me so I can only imagine what Luke is feeling. He is a typical male and isn't saying much. There has been some angry behavior and snuggling late this afternoon and evening. Both of which were totally expected. The woman giving us a tour said there are over 500 children who live at this orphanage. My question was where are they all??? The place was like a morgue. Except for the room where we got to see some "babies", and two older children in the hallway, we did not see any children. We were told they were in other buildings, but it was so silent. We didn't see any signs of children in other buildings and there was no one outside. It's kind of hard to hid 500 kids, but somehow they managed.

We were taken to a room that had about 16 kids in it. They ranged in age from 2-5. We were there right at nap time so we tried to be quiet. The ones that were awake were curious and watched us, but they remained lying down and didn't make a sound. Can you imagine??? 16 children that young being quiet??? It was very difficult . . .some seemed sad or we got blank stares. But some had quite the personality. Like this little girl.
 

And these little guys...

Catherine walked among the cribs, stroking hair and holding hands.

Luke walked around to some of the cribs, and at one point he just sat in a chair and watched. But there was this one little boy that reached out to him and Luke seemed drawn to him as well. Here is a picture of them together.

A caretaker came in and we told her Luke's Chinese name. She said she remembered the name . . .Don't really know whether she truly did or not, but she and the others seemed genuinely happy to see Luke. I asked for a copy of Luke's file. I was told that the lady who prepares the files was not in today. It was Saturday of a holiday week. I was also told that some information in the file cannot be disclosed. I was told that there would be an email coming with information that we perhaps did not have. I won't hold my breath, but am hoping for the best.

I can't believe we got to be there. It was something I will cherish for the rest of my life. I hope that one day Luke will too.

We Made It to Shanghai!

We arrived safely in Shanghai and everything at the airport went very smoothly.  We had a nice layover in Japan.  It was raining hard and reminded us of Seattle.

We got to our hotel late but were a bit wired so it took us all a while to settle down and sleep.  Our room is very nice and Kevin realized that this is the same hotel he stayed with his brother when he came to get Luke.  He says that there has been some significant remodeling.

Our first day in Shanghai, we spent with our guide Summer.  We went to Old Shanghai which was so busy.  Lots and lots of people.  This week is a national holiday.  They are celebrating the beginning of the communist party in China.  So there are lots of people out and on holiday.  We were able to find a silk factory where we bought a silk comforter.  This is to replace the one Kevin bought 7 years ago.  We have loved it but it is falling apart.  We were thrilled to find a new one and at a reasonable price.  Summer took us across a street into a residential area.  There we found a small shop where I found a nice piece of luggage that will be more convenient than my brief case.  The area was a little sketchy and I was a bit nervous once I realized where we were going, but it all worked out in the end.  I think in the future we will stick to more mainstream areas.

We went on a river cruise and then stopped for lunch.  Everyone but Catherine loved the food.  Catherine wouldn't even try it even though it was just noodles and rice. She is going to be a hungry girl for the next two weeks!  We took a walk on The Bund which is a promenade along the river where the Brittish offices were.

By the time we got back to our room we were all exhausted.  Luke actually fell asleep at dinner.  Kids were asleep by 7:30 and we were lights out by 8.  Of course Luke was up at 4:30 a.m.!!  So now, at 8:15 a.m. I'm ready for a nap.

Today we are relaxing until about 1 p.m.  My camera broke so we are going to buy a camera and an electronic translator.  We are going to go to Nanjing Road where there is more shopping.  Not that we are buying but it is fun to look around.  Tonight we are heading to an acrobat show.

Tomorrow we will meet up with Chuan Sun, the law student that was going to work at my office and live with us this summer.  We are then going to the Shanghai Children's Welfare Institute.  This is where Luke lived for about a year before coming home.  Apparently several families have been denied the ability to go there even when adopting lately, so we feel fortunate to be able to go.  Stephanie will arrive tomorrow night and we can't wait to see her.  

That's all for now!  Will keep you updated!

Molly