One Week In

Hard to believe we've been home a week!  In some ways it's flown and in others, it feels like it's been forever because so much has happened.  2 1/2 weeks ago, we were seriously wondering if Allie would ever put weight on her legs or play.  We didn't even dream she'd go to sleep without being held.  And here we are just one week home and she's slept 12 hours at night 3 times in a row, crying just a few minutes (tonight maybe 30 seconds!) before going to sleep.  She's playing and chasing her siblings around.  She's laughing when Raven comes near her.  She's learning words and sign language and listening when I tell her not to do something.  She is wonderful.  Not perfect--she's a toddler so she gets cranky and restless and wants to be held a whole lot, but still, she's wonderful.

Here are some pictures from sibling bonding.  The boys could just eat her up.  Julia feels a mix of delight and motherliness and jealousy.  She was very happy to have her sleep in her room last night during the storm and is hopeful they can keep sharing a room every night.  She loves taking baths together.  But she gets a little grumpy when people give all their attention to Allie and feels like she's getting the raw end of the deal sometimes. (i.e. "Why won't you do 'This is the Way the Ladies Ride' with ME?  Mimi is way older than you and she does it for me and Gray and Joshua!!  Are you going to still do it for Allie when she's as old as me?!)  Allie will play with the other kids longer than she will with me a lot of times and she will ask them to hold her occasionally and ask them to share their food all the time.  It's cute, though I am reminded that we have to keep teaching her what it is to have parents...not just a house full of people that can get her stuff she needs if she asks them.  I feel like we have bonded so well, but I think this 2 1/2 weeks can't be enough to make up for 1 1/2 years of being apart.  So we will keep working!

A few more pics from China and Thanks

I'm still sorting out pictures from our trip and ordering prints...hoping to make a China wall with some of them.  I remembered that I took our big camera out a couple of days and had some of the Great Wall and Baiyun Mtn on there, plus the garden out by our hotel....

Map of the Great Wall.  We were waiting for Flora to get our tickets.

The lift up to the top.  You ride that and then walk along the wall, climbing many, many steps!

Yep, that's a pic of Michelle Obama on this safety sign for the slide down the wall.

Us at one of the towers.  It was a beautiful day and actually got warm climbing all those steps.

No, don't do it!  Matt pretending to jump off the side.

The guy with all the photos on his camera of American celebrities who have ridden the slide.

Matt about to zoom down as fast as possible.

The top of Mt. Baiyun overlooking Guangzhou.  Wish we'd had a more clear day, but at least it was nice temperature-wise.

China throws a lot at the environment but we did see evidence of trying to be more green and it was actually a very clean place.

The garden by our hotel.  She wouldn't walk for more than a few steps without asking to be held.

Eating a leaf.

Those crazy fish.  This was before Allie tried to scoot off the edge to join them.

And finally, so many thanks go to so many of you.  You have given us kind words of encouragement from the beginning, helped us afford the adoption fees, prayed for us, been excited for us, helped with our kids, given us baby gifts, made us food, etc, etc.  Particular thanks to my mom and Matt's parents for taking great care of the kids in our absence and to all our wonderful family who cleaned our house, grocery shopped, decorated, brought gifts, and greeted us at the airport (some even driving a few hours just to see us for a few minutes).  We are blessed beyond measure to have such a support system around us and are truly grateful.  Allie is still very wary of strangers (and I think a good part of that is just her personality from what her nannies say) so we are trying to mostly stick to home and let her feel secure here, but we will see more and more of you in the days ahead and hope you'll be able to get to know her and become more a part of her life too.  We appreciate your continued prayers as we have medical appointments this week and just try to give Allie what she needs.  Thank you!

First days in NC

We came home to a different life than we left, as I knew we would and had begun to feel apprehensive about in China.  So many people say that the trip to China is about survival, but without other kids there, it didn't feel like that to me.  We had no responsibilities besides being where our guide told us to be, soaking up the culture, and caring for Allie.  Being able to focus only on her was so good for bonding and keeping stress down.  But now that we are home, Allie has gone back in her shell a bit so she needs all that attention, but we have three other kids and a home, bills, activities, etc.  Oh- and jet lag.  It has been hard.  She cries a lot, wants to be held standing up a lot, flips if she is told no, doesn't want to sleep very much, shuts down around new people (or sometimes even the kids), has jet lag herself.

But when she smiles it makes all the hard stuff seem not so bad.  And we've had many sweet moments having all the kids together.  Allie even likes Raven.  I know before too long it will seem like we've always had her and we will sleep again.  This Sunday morning it's just me and Allie and she's already showing more signs of her old self.  She's busy at work learning which surfaces magnets stick to.  She learns so quickly and has new words already- baby, doggy, bye bye.  She is doing her baby sign language and learned how to blow through a bubble wand and do a shaper sorter.  Her world is so big now and though it makes me tear up to think of all she has left behind, I'm so excited to watch her grow.  We watched Finding Dory with the older three last night and at the end when the parents show Dory how they put out a shell path to their home every day so she can find them, it really got to me as I thought about Allie's first parents and how the opposite happened to her, how they are missing out on such a sweet girl, how they must think of her every day but not have any more chances to find her.  Whew, so many emotions.  Still sorting it all out.

Coming Home

What a looong, tiring, emotional day and a half we had traveling home. Simon picked us up in his car at 5:45 to go to the airport. We were pretty quiet on the way, tired and listening to his American music. When we got to the airport, I felt very emotional thinking of taking Allie away from her home country.

Our first flight Allie was already squirmy and restless and crying. About 15 minutes into that flight I thought I was going to lose my mind and how in the world would we make it through 24 more hours of travel??  Somehow she settled a little and we made in through the 3 hour flight to Beijing, mostly thanks to snacks.

We felt so thankful our flight wasn't delayed and all the logistics of getting our 3 bags, rechecking them, going through security, and changing terminals went super smoothly even though we had a tight connection time.  Our gate was right by a play area and Allie had lots of fun during our short wait to board.  I thought it was neat to watch a little Chinese boy and girl play and try to get Allie to play and both called Allie mei mei (little sister) and referred to each other by brother or sister too.

We got on our flight to Boston and were delighted that it wasn't full and we got a row of three seats to ourselves, even though we had only paid for a lap seat for Allie.  This flight was all kinds of hard and I felt tense and tired most of it.  She was happy when we were eating and was surprisingly devoted to taking stickers off a page and sticking them in a pile like she was doing serious work for literally and hour or two of the trip.  She liked standing on my lap and using her pointer finger to make the menu on the screen move.  But other than that, it was crying, screaming, falling into a restless sleep, and repeat.  I never did fall asleep for more than a minute or two.  Thankfully the back of the plane had several restless toddlers, so I didn't feel terrible when she screamed.  Finally as we were close to landing, she fell into a deep sleep that continued throughout most of our Boston connection, which turned out to be one of the very lowest points of our trip.  

We got off the plane and went straight to a very warm customs room.  Allie was dripping in sweat, as she gets very hot when sleeping and crying, which she had done lots of.  There were two lines and although it seemed clear we needed to go in the one for American passports, I asked the guy direction folks about our adoptee and he said just go in the American lien and the lady in charge there would tell us what to do next.  So we waited in that line and went to fill out our info at a kiosk.  There was no option for Allie though, so we asked what to do and to our dismay they said we had come through the wrong line and needed to go in the one for visas.  That line was a snake of tons and tons of people that was barely moving.  My arm was shaking Allie was getting so heavy, we were both sweating, I hadn't slept in 22 or so hours, I thought we were probably going to miss our next flight, and I was certain I was going to lose my mind.  Extreme low point.

Then, a guy comes over and pulls us and two other families from the back of the line to an overflow line with only a few people.  Thank you Lord!  It still took a bit of time, but the guy was nice and even happy to tell us Allie was his first adoptee to come through his line.  We made it through that wait and into baggage claim where again we felt so thankful all our bags made it!  We loaded them on a cart and went to wait in another line.  A long one, but fast moving one.  They appeared to be checking luggage for items bought outside the US, but they rushed most of us through, just taking our luggage tags.  On to our gate, with time to spare.  But alas, our boarding passes for this flight that they gave us in Beijing were not good enough for some reason and we had to get in another line to have new ones printed.  After that?  You guessed it: another line.  A long, hot line through TSA security. 

 At this point Allie woke up and was not pleased her blanket had to go through security without her.  But we made it through and to our gate with a little time to spare, only to find out our flight was delayed for 1 1/2 hours.  So close, and yet so far.  I began to feel very emotional again, thinking of seeing all our family and finally being done with this travel.  We took turns entertaining Allie and finally it was time to board.  She immediately took her shoes and socks off to make herself at home on yet another plane.  Then she fell asleep and didn't wake till we landed.  Whew!

And then we followed the signs to baggage claim and found this happy crowd along the way!  Lots of smiles, pictures, and hugs, a few tears, a very shy and nervous Allie.  We chatted a little and got our bags, then headed home.

 

 

 
It took awhile to get the kids settled down.  They had so much to tell us and wanted to talk to Allie too.  Finally all went to bed and we got a blissful two hours of sleep before Allie was already up crying.  But hey- we did it.  We went all the way to China and came back with our precious girl.  Still processing all that has happened.  It's been quite a ride.

 

Safari Park!!

Our last full day we decided to take a trip to a big zoo.  It was an incredible place and one of the best things we did. So many animals that we could get super close to. Matt really loved the tigers, especially the cubs. I liked the pandas best. The world's first known panda triplets were born there and we got to see them wrestle. In addition to all the animals we could walk around and see, there was a train that took you to another part where you'd drive right by dozens of other kinds. Not much in the way of safety except a few fences and trenches and signs saying don't touch. Allie had a nap there in the stroller and we managed to navigate there and back on the subway just fine. We came back to the hotel and finished getting all packed to go home. We had our last dinner at a Thai place that was really good. Matt said might be his favorite meal up there with one we had in Beijing and a little French restaurant we went to one night with a very sweet waitress who spoke great English and kept telling us how nice we were to adopt.

 

 

 

The Last Days in China

February 20

We had a free day and Matt wanted to go to the shoe outlet so we rode the subway again.  It wasn't quite as crowded and people are kind and offer their seat to whichever of us has Allie.  We found the shoe place but sadly they didn't have Matt's size in any of the tons of stores.  Some kind of laughed/shouted "no" when we asked for 45.  43 was the limit.

We walked through the "toy" mall again looking for jewelry but didn't buy anything.  They have some interesting styles such as two different earrings in a set.  We rode the subway home and had naps, then Matt had to meet Simon for papers.

We played in the room and then fed the fish.  Allie wanted to eat all the crackers at first, then got into feeding them and tried to scoot into the water too.

Our last thing of the day was a river cruise.  We waited awhile for it to start and were all feeling a little blah- ready to go home, cranky.  We went inside and ate dinner, which was okay, though I again declined the chicken feet that our guide is fond of.  The city and bridges were all lit up and pretty.  The best part was going on the deck though.  The night was perfect temp-wise and the tall Canton tower was so pretty.  Then we went in for a kind of random juggling act- one Chinese woman doing her thing to Ricky Martin music.  She was good though and liked to work the audience, spinning a basketball on the kids' fingers- even Allie's.

We got home late and took a while to get Allie to sleep, then woke early for our Consulate appointment.

February 21

We had early breakfast and headed on a van with another family we had met to the consulate.  It was a morning of waiting, but nice to meet the other families.  We met one other couple who lived in Dupont the exact same years as us, in the same apartment complex.  And other dad's sister lives in a popular neighborhood in Hillsborough.

The actual business side was quick as they are just verifying all we have done so far in order to give Allie a visa to immigrate to the U.S.  She fell asleep on the way home and we took a short break and and headed to Shamian Island, which is the area on the river that used to hold adoption offices and now is mostly shops and restaurants.  The shop owners were very kind and asked a lot about our family... and definitely tried to push some sales, but I didn't mind, as I needed to get gifts and some of their proceeds benefit orphans.

Allie slept in her stroller during the first part as we walked through the beautiful old streets.  We saw several bridal and model photo shoots.  The weather was great and I could have stayed all day.  We ate a quick lunch at what Simon called "Cantonese Panda Express" and went to the hotel to pack.  Almost time to go home!

Baiyun Mountain

February 19

Today we took our first taxi to Baiyun (White Cloud) Mountain for a hike.  Allie had slept all night 8-7, so we had some energy to burn.  Tons of people like to spend Sunday here so we just followed the crowds.  Lots of music, kids playing, etc and some beautiful views of the city after you climb all the steps up (we heard 800+!)

Allie was great the whole time, riding in the front pack.  We took some pictures and let Allie walk around, then headed back down.  At the bottom we ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant where no English was spoken or on the menu- we just pointed at pictures and hoped for the best.  Got a lot of mushrooms along with our beef and cauliflower.  Allie ate everything along with us.

We decided with all the traffic, we'd prefer not to taxi home, so we started walking, hoping for a metro station.  We stopped to ask some young people but they didn't understand.  Apparently their English classes didn't include the word metro or subway.  So we just kept walking and looking for signs to show us the road so we could find it on our map.

We ended up walking the whole way back, but the weather was beautiful and a good bit of the walk was past a beautiful park with a big lake- Luhu.  When we got back, I was playing with Allie and despite only a 15 minute nap, she was so happy and interactive.  She was babbling, giggling, and even learned to sign "please" so I would open the box she was playing with.

(And a bonus pic- not from this trip, maybe not from this day?!)