Stuck in China?

We got a call from our adoption agency's China office tonight (Saturday) at 8 p.m. that the U.S. Consulate does not have our revised visa approval from the Louisville Citizenship and Immigration Services office that was approved 3-30-10.

This means that if Louisville does not send this paperwork by May 5th in China that we will not get to go to our consulate appointment or leave China as planned on May 8th.

Seeing how it is Saturday morning back home that leaves very few days to get this worked out. The other problem is that the Louisville CIS is one of those offices where they can contact you, but you are not supposed to contact them.

FTIA did get the name of a contact person with the Louisville CIS. Her name is Jennifer Hendrix. The agency and I have already left voice mails and e-mails for her, but she won't be in until Monday probably.

I have used whitepages.com to try to get a home phone number. Only one Jennifer Hendrix appears, but when I call her number it says it is disconnected.

So if anyone out there, especially our journalism friends and Louisville friends, know of a Jennifer Hendrix or anyone else who works for the Louisville CIS, contact numbers, etc. Any help would greatly be appreciated. She appears to be the only way we are leaving China on time.

We will continue e-mailing and calling all appropriate parties, but thought that there might be someone out there reading this who could help.

Pray that we get this resolved and get to come home on time.

14 Things That Remind You That You are Definitely in China

Doug says, "How many posed pictures are people going to want to see?" -- which has made me venture off in a new direction.

14 Things That Remind Us That We are Definitely In China

1. Toddlers in split pants squatting on the sidewalks. Shoes off at the door has a whole new meaning.

2. When inquiring about a restroom you make sure to ask, "Western toilet or squatty potty?" See photo above. (Natalie and I performed a balancing act one afternoon as I helped her master the squat over the hole in the ground. The theatre had only squatty potties. The line of 20 women using multiple stalls had disappeared in the time it took us to master this one use.)

3. In the restroom the guide checks, "Did you bring your own paper?" (Yes, we remembered to do this. Thank goodness, she only offered one tiny square to those who forgot.)

4. Every time you order a drink, you make sure to ask for no ice. (The water in China is not safe for us to drink.)

5. You throw away multiple toothbrushes that you accidentally stick under the faucet because it's a habit, and you momentarily forgot that the water in China is not safe. (Luckily, the hotels supply new toothbrushes, and bottled water, daily.)

6. You long for a seatbelt, a car seat, some sort of safety device as you whizz around through traffic in the semi-rundown van in which the driver constantly swerves and hits the horn. If there is a blockage in the traffic, it is OK. He will quickly pull into oncoming traffic to get around it.

7. Cars never stop as they pull out into traffic. They only blast their horn as some sort of warning of "Watch out, here I come". We saw an old man riding a bike with no horn. He had a metal pot in a basket and he was beating on it with a stick.)

8. Elevators/small spaces seem to encourage some kind of game -- "How many people can fit?"

9. You think it is foggy, but then notice that the sky is not hazy after a rain. The rainfall clears the pollution for awhile. The sun finally appears to be shining.

10. You remind yourself that you are playing life or death Frogger every time you cross the street.

11. Firecrackers. The folks here love their firecrackers. The other day at a nice restaurant the wedding party set off a brick of firecrackers outside the restaurant to scare away evil spirits and bad luck. Today is May Day, or Chinese Labour Day, and it sounds like a war zone even from the 15th floor. Not popping ... roaring explosions. Lots of them.

12. You go to check Facebook, or Google, or some other favorite Web site ... and you get nothing. "This site not available."

13. Double dipping is OK, even encouraged. We still aren't used to this,and we try to avoid it. But when you eat in China, everybody serves themselves out of the same dishes and pots , using the chopsticks that they are eating with. And you have to do it a lot, cause the plates they give you to eat on are tiny. Even when you know the people you are eating with, it just isn't something that comes naturally to germ-phobe Americans.

14. Next time you order chicken or any meat, you learn to ask if the head and feet are included.

Near Normal in Nanchang

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I think we are getting used to Nanchang just as it is almost time to leave. We have had a good two days touring Longevity Temple, the Tang We Pavilion, Elephant Lake Park and eating at a couple of nice Chinese restaurants.

Things don't seem as shocking to us -- the traffic, the stares, the food... Natalie takes pleasure in being the big sister who pushes the stroller. The baby takes everything in stride.

Abigail really is a good baby. She is generally happy -- smiling at us often. She's eating better now. She goes to sleep easily which was always a stumbling point with Natalie. Well, as I say this, tonight is the first night Abigail's having trouble. But we just returned late from watching a water fountain light and music show which may have her out of sync.

She is finally taking whole bottles in addition to all of her congee and steamed eggs. After I got her to take a whole one, I rechecked her report to find that it said they added sugar to her bottle. I am proud to report I never added the sugar packets that I did bring. I had read that it was a possibility that I might need them. And she has downed several full bottles sans sugar.

Our guide Helen is worried about us because she hears us sneezing or coughing occasionally. The pollution is very bad here -- always a thick haze in the sky. Everyone in our group has been taking sinus or allergy medicine. Helen thinks the problem is that we need to wear more clothing, even when we're dripping with sweat from the humidity. She tell us we need to cover our arms. We get very warm while out and about yet everyone seems to be dressed in winter clothes -- kids in sweaters, thick tights and adults in coats. I don't quite get it.

Here's another irony. When both of our families and our guide and the sometimes the bus driver eat dinner together, it costs a little less than 200 yuan, which is about 30 American dollars for 8 people and 2 babies to have more than enough food. But the Hagen-Daaz chocolate ice cream in the freezer downstairs that I want so badly costs 56 yuan which is about 8 dollars!! Chinese food has always made me crave chocolate, but no Hagen-Daaz for me!

Besides touring, we have also been catching up on our sleep. All the activity seems to have caught up with us.

Tomorrow is a holiday here -- May Day, something like Labor Day from what I understand. Helen offered to take us to People's Park. She said everyone would be off from work and school. But something triggered our memory of our Summer Palace experience. I asked Helen if the park would be crowded, and she said something like Disneyland. Oh no, things already seem very crowded to us. Can't imagine how the Chinese might think a Disneyland crowd would be.

So we passed on People's Park on a holiday. We are choosing the quiet, relaxing hotel pool and packing and repacking until each bag weighs under 44 lbs. The problem being that we have accumulated more keepsakes along the way.

And maybe we'll fit in a trip to McDonalds, of course. I think their milkshakes may be the only calcium we're getting. A milkshake has never tasted so good!

The day after tomorrow (Sunday morning) we leave for Guangzhou, the city where we became a family with Natalie and where we spent the entire 17 days on our last trip to China. I'm thinking it should bring back many happy memories and feel a little more like home. It's also our last stop before returning home. And as Doug just said, "There's no place like home."

Lions and Tigers and Dogs, Oh My!

With the babies in strollers, it was off to the zoo today. We thought we were going to a tomb because that's what it sounded like everytime our guide Helen told us. But today in the van on the way to our destination, we asked, "Whose tomb?" We found out we weren't going to a tomb at all, but to the zoo. She explained that she often puts the 'm' sound at the end of words. That's good to know.

The zoo was filled with lines and lines of schoolchildren. Everyone in one class all holding hands while following each other in line. (If only we did field trips that way back home.) The children would practice their English as they passed by saying "Hello", "Nice to meet you", "See you later" and "Goodbye".

Many families would stop to admire our babies, Abigail and the other baby in our group Josie whose birthday is just a few days away from Abigail's. They would talk to the babies, show their children the babies, etc. Helen said they were interested in Abigail's bow, which was handmade by the mother of one of the boys in my class.

Natalie enjoyed the animals especially feeding the coy which would literally swim on top of each other in one big mound to get the food. Natalie saw children taking smaller fish home. She really wished she could take one home to add to her pets Fin and Gill.

We saw the usual zoo animals -- an elephant with humongous tusks, a lion, lots of cranes, etc. Abigail was awake the whole time. But we were taken back when we got to the dog exhibit -- larger dogs like Golden Retrievers. Evidently the Chinese are only allowed to have smaller dogs as pets, so these dogs were rare to them.

Natalie said her favorite part of the zoo was the animal show which I will call Animal Acrobats. They had a goat walking a tightrope with a monkey balancing on one hand on its back. Next a bear did flips in rings suspended in the air, but when they started pushing the bear around in circles so it looked like it was flying, I'd had enough.

Many of the school children had the same cartoon character on their hats and clothes. We recognized that it was the character that was on Abigail's pajamas the day we got her. So I asked Helen who said he was Happy Goat from a very popular cartoon in China.

Jiangxi Province is known for the porcelain they make so we stopped at a porcelain store and got a little teaset for one of Abigail's keepsakes, and Natalie chose a trinket box. We got Natalie a teaset on our first trip to China.

Since we've started offering to pay for our guide's meals, she took us to lunch before returning us to the hotel. This time to a nice Chinese restaurant -- not a shock to the system in regards to cleanliness like the last one.

She asks us what foods we like then she orders the dishes which we eat the traditional Chinese way -- what I'd call family dining where large dishes are put out and everyone gets their servings from these.

She ordered us chicken among many other dishes. The whole chicken came out in a deep pot. Helen served us from the pot -- chicken legs for the girls, white meat for us, etc. Then she plopped a chicken foot on her plate, which she later ate, I hear. I didn't look. Doug joked, "Hey Helen, I wanted that foot." The chicken was very tender and tasty. Later when standing up to get Abigail some steamed egg, I looked in the pot and noticed not only another foot, but the chicken head. I knew the Chinese kept the head on the fish for good luck. But I am glad that I didn't look in there earlier and see that head.

We asked for vegetables and here's our first one. They brought green stems and we asked Helen what is it. She said it's grass from the local manmade river. We all tried it, but couldn't eat it because of the hot peppers which had given it flavor.

We tried the Peking Duck but this must not have been the place to get it. Because instead of getting duck meat, we got duck skin with a little fat on it to roll up with sauce in our wrappers. I passed.

We have discovered that Abigail and Josie have a love for steamed eggs, a pudding-like egg dish. Abigail downed 3 bowls, which is great since I still cannot get a bottle that she will consistently eat. Some days she likes rice cereal in her bottle. Other days not so much.
Looking at her, I wouldn't think she'd be a picky eater, but she is about her bottle. I still can not make a bottle that suits her every time. I'll figure it out. Until then rice congee and steamed egg will have to hold her over.

Abigail is laughing and giggling more now, especially if you hold her in the air or if she is in the pool.

So it was a good day. We ventured out on our own to McDonalds again for dinner and enjoyed shakes and ice cream with our meal, and never had to cross a busy street. We're getting the hang of things.

We still have a few days here. We leave Nanchang on Sunday. Evidently we are here so long because it takes awhile for our visa paperwork to process.

Tomorrow we're off to Tang We Pavillion, a temple here, and Helen said, another Chinese restaurant if we'd like!

More Mama Time

Great news! Abigail has been cuddling with her mama.

Doug woke with a bad headache so I took over. Before long Abigail was giggling and smiling and laughing with me. She even downed a bottle for the first time with me!

We strapped her in my hip carrier before our big trip to the Chinese Walmart. She somehow slept through the whole experience right there in that carrier.

We needed to go to Walmart because the luggage limits didn't allow us to bring the quantities of items we'd need for a 17 day stay -- 14 of those days with a baby.

But American brands were abundant Pampers, Johnson's baby shampoo, Nestle rice cereal. Then we got some snacks to make us feel more at home -- Lay's potato chips, Bugles, Oreos and Pringles, which come in flavors such as kiwi or shrimp. We stuck with what we knew. We have had enough adventure lately.

Our group gets alot of attention in these types of situations. People admiring the babies. They try to figure out if Natalie can speak Chinese. Lots of stares -- it's hard not knowing what they are saying. Every once and awhile if we ask her to our guide will translate.

Walmart was on the second and third floor with a magnetized escalator that you stand on with your shopping cart. The layout and the colors of the signs made it seem familiar, but the blaring heavy metal music did not -- nor the workers at certain areas yelling for customers to buy their items. It was very loud, but we got what we needed.

We convinced our guide to stop at McDonald's for lunch on the way home. I have never eaten so much McDonald's, but it so comforting because it is so much like home. Outside its doors are another story. Bicycles and motorized vehicles lined up as far as you can see.

The main reason we went out today was to go to the notary's office. God answered my prayers. We did not have to cross the street.

As soon as we sat before the notary, she said, "You adopt fat baby." Big sister Natalie stepped into protective mode and was worried that the comment wasn't very nice. I later tried to explain that maybe the woman didn't know the translation for a better choice of words.

Abigail took her first dip in the pool. At first she was okay if I was holding her close, but by the end she let me help her extend her legs in the water. Soon she might enjoy the water as much as our little mermaid/fish Natalie. Dad was supposed to come take photos of Abigail's first swim but he feel asleep waiting for our laundry to be delivered.

Now everyone's taking a nap. It looks like I might be able to catch up on some sleep too. Nothing is planned for the rest of the day. Well, Natalie has plans to revisit the pool!

Daddy's Girl

Well, it's official. Abigail is definitely a Daddy's girl.
What should be the last photo is from yesterday, I forgot to post it. I was going to write about how many people say the baby looks like Doug. No wonder she is going to him first.

We were told by one of our guides that when you receive the babies that there are typically these personalities -- happy baby (Abigail yesterday, not today), serious baby (very much Natalie's disposition when we got her), crying baby, and the baby that attaches to one parent first (this is where Abigail stands now).

She had her head on his shoulder rubbing his stubble on his cheek tonight. She cries when Doug leaves her side. She's taking the bottle better from him, but still not great yet. (She is gumming some soft solid foods with her 2 1/2 teeth). She cries until he holds her. Part of me thinks, "Wow, now he knows what is was like. Natalie clung to me like that. But then I get more realistic and realize that he's going to be going back to work. She's gotta attach to me soon, too.

The guide did give advice for clingy baby. Doug will need to be out of the room some so that she is forced to depend on me. She'll come around soon. She'll see that her mama loves her.

She's been kind of fussy today. She's tugging on her ears, started coughing a little and her nose started running a little thicker. So I went ahead and started her on the antibiotic I brought because I suspect an ear infection.

We also did the prune feeding thing which reared its ugly head literally when we bravely ventured out to a let's just say very authentic (Let me just say that we inquired about a fork, and they brought one with only two prongs instead of four) Chinese restaurant across the street.
We were all just about finished eating when 'Walla' Doug informed me that the diaper was full. We asked our guide Helen (who we offered to take out to dinner to get away from our 3 times a day tasteless hotel buffet) about the restroom. She said, "Oh, you don't want to go there."

So I pulled two chairs together there at the table only to find a diaper explosion that had found its way through layers of clothing. Doug and Natalie gathered around. I tried what the surgeons do, you know 'Scapel.." but they were too in shock to respond quickly. It was our first change of this sort. So we bagged everything up, wrapped a blanket around poor half-clothed Abigail (I know always bring extra clothes, I had a memory lapse here) and headed back to the hotel.

The six-lane highway in front of the hotel has no crosswalk, stop lights or stop signs. The strategy seems to be to step out in front of mopeds and bikes because they have room in the lane to dodge you. But the tour buses, trucks and cars that are coming whizzing toward you at this point are not as willing to slow down or much less stop.

Our guide Helen tells us to stay close to her and follow but there is never really an opening in the traffic. We are literally dodging all these vehicles on foot with babies and our daughters in hand. We have had to cross the road twice now to get to the Civil Affairs Office.

Once Helen took Doug and Chris (the other dad with us) to get us water bottles. They dodged the traffic with a case of water. (The tap water in the hotels in China is not drinkable.) Evidently Doug assumed a car would stop for him (this was early in our stay here), but that nearly wasn't the case, Chris explained. Doug said they both almost got hit.

Today I had tears in my eyes as I stood by Helen with Abigail in our carrier on the way back from our government interview. I thought we were going to be standing between two moving cars, but thank goodness the second car did stop.

Tonight when we left the restaurant early I thought we were going to have to cross by ourselves, but Helen magically appeared and guided us across much more easily than before. Did I mention that the hotel buffet is looking much better?

Pray for us as tomorrow we must cross again for the notary appointment. Sitting here now there is a constant honking that we hear in our 15th floor hotel room, but it's starting to sound like background music.

Natalie has been in her element today, well except after that restaurant experience. She has been asking to go swimming the whole trip and finally got the chance today. She and Genna had a much deserved swim. Being a big sister is hard at first.

We also finally got the drive hooked to the netbook so Natalie can watch her DVDs which gives us more time to tend to the baby.

That sums up our day. I did learn that the foster mother lives at a 'resting home for officials'. I'm wondering if she was allowed to bring that baby to us because she is married to someone important. China's foster mothers do tend to be older women.

Besides honking, I hear everyone here snoring. I must get some sleep.

The Belated Great Wall Post

 

That day seems like a blur now. The day before we got Abigail. But there are moments that I won't forget.

**Our guide gave us two choices at the Great Wall -- go to the right where looking up I saw a thick line of endless people climbing up a very steep incline (the challenging route, she called it -- evidently what the locals choose) or to the left -- much less crowded and less challenging. I don't have to tell you which one we chose.

**Because you see, the rise of the steps of the GW are very uneven -- one might rise an inch, the next a half a foot. And they are very worn and parts are missing in some places. As we went through the first tunnel, "Somebody needs to replace these steps!" Natalie yelled --which of course was followed by a history lesson by us.

**I didn't expect all of the steps going down in the dark tunnels before we ever started our ascent. My legs were already Jell-o before even going up.

**Needless to say, Natalie charged ahead on a mission, a couple of the other dads and one of their daughters with her. We stopped about halfway with several others in our group, okay maybe we stopped a third of the way up to the first tower only to hear Natalie at the top shouting, "Come on you, slowpokes." That was exactly not what I expected to hear at the GW.
**She tried to coax us up there with "I'm not coming down until you come up here." But we were definitely out of gas.

**As the few others in our group came down, so did Natalie. You'd think I would have many photos of Natalie's climb from my prime spot but as my luck goes that's when the batteries went dead. She climbed the wall to that first tower in the same amount of time it took me to change the batteries.

**Afterward we visited a Cloissoine Factory and ate a Chinese lunch next to it. Then off to a Jade Factory. We are buying keepsakes for Abigail like we did for Natalie.

**Our last stop at the emperor's Summer Palace was like nothing I have ever experienced. At first I tried to explain it to Natalie as like a busy day at Disney World. But you could multiply that times the largest number you could think of and not be close. I have never been squeezed through crowds like I was there while vendors blew loud whistles they tried to sell. It was all very surreal and hard to explain. And as Natalie put it, it 'freaked us out".

**To leave the last gate, we were pushed and shoved through only to find two street vendors on each side of the opening with blazing hot barrels selling sweet potatoes sitting on top. It's amazing that someone did not get burned. These are my memories of the Summer Palace.

**The other family who had been there before said, "It's not supposed to be like this." The guide explained that the tourist spots were busy because of the upcoming holiday May Day. Busy was definitely an understatement.

**Between all the sights, we sat in never-ending traffic an hour to two hours at each interval. The cars, bikes, tour buses here don't believe in using lanes and just cut each other off every minute or two with just inches between them. It's really heart stopping to watch.

**So we were worn out at the end of that day. Therefore, that's why this post was belated. We had to go back and prepare to fly out and receive our baby the next morning. We were drained and exhausted.

**But as you see we made it here to Nanchang and Abigail was placed happily in our arms!