We're Home!

We are a day later than we thought but getting everyone home safe was worth it! Our flight from Newark to Buffalo was cancelled Thurs night, so we had to wait until morning to come home. We were surprised with a great welcome at the airport, my sister and her family came from Newmarktet ON to greet us. Our friends Kim & Jenn spent the night in Buffalo so that they could take us home on Friday, that was so above and beyond.

The kids did well on the flight home, it was the parents that were pretty frazzled. Getting from one plane to the other in Beijing took over 2 hours. With the new security, they took away our water and searched both our checked and carry on luggage three times during the trip home. It is much more difficult to travel with kids with all this security. Also, Liam at age 6 was good about staying close to us, but occationally Nyla would start to wander and the fact that my kids would blend into a crowd scared me during the entire trip. Overall, despite all my heavy complaints, I am really glad that we brought them, it was good for them to experience everything first hand. Kids are more flexible than adults in many ways. It was more work & stress, so I can understand why many parents don't bring their kids.

Below I will post some pictures of our arrival to Buffalo.






When we arrived home, friends Kirsten, Chris and Jen brought over some lunch, with no food in the fridge it was greatly appreciated.




I tried to keep the kids up but everyone was asleep by 8pm. Ethan woke around midnight and then woke up Liam and Nyla. It is 2am and they are settling back to sleep. I am going there also. We probably will keep Ethan home for a few days to get settled in and feel secure in his surroundings. We have been traveling to different places every few days so I want him to get to know his new home. Feel free to stop by, we may be asleep but hopefully we will get that straightened out in a few days.

US Visa

Update on post below: I mistakenly thought that we were going to the US Consulate at 4pm, but the bus was leaving at 2:45pm. Charlotte called our room looking for us and Patrick had just brought the kids back up from the pool and I was just finishing the post below. We scrambled to get ready and find our passports, we were the last family on the bus and were very embarrassed! Luckily, we got to the US Consulate before 4pm and we were sworn in without incident. Afterwards we went to Lucy's with the other families in our group to celebrate. We leave for home in the morning!




Yesterday, Charlotte our guide took all of our paperwork to the US Consulate and it was all ok. Today we take Ethan to the Consulate to be sworn in at 4pm. He will then be given a US Visa. We leave early tomorrow and have 3 flights until we get home. We should arrive in Buffalo at 10:30pm if all goes well.

Ethan is doing well and we are very thankful that he has been healthy on this trip, it really reduces our stress level. He laughs easily now and LOVES to be held which we do a lot of to make up for lost time. He is still not eating much but will attempt to taste things. I don't know if he just prefers the bottle or if it has anything to do with his cleft palate. But we will keep trying after we get home and haven't been pushing the food much since he drinks the bottles well. Actually he will drink every bottle dry and then always cries that is it all gone, like there should be 16 oz in there instead of only 8.

I took Liam and Nyla to the zoo this morning and will post a few pictures. We hope to see everyone soon and can't wait to get home!

People of China

We had Ethan's physical and passport pictures done yesterday. He is 8.9kg and 72.5cm long. It was not an opportunity to ask medical questions, they are just making sure the kids are healthy before leaving the country.


We have spent a lot of time in the parks around the hotel and find it interesting that young and old exercise on the same equipment. You will have kids playing and a 70 year old man doing chin ups beside them. I saw some 20 something year old guys exercising and smoking at the same time. There are also groups doing tai chi and other activities. In general, parents and kids and elderly are all exercising together in the same area, instead of the adults just watching the kids play (as I was doing). Very interesting.

In China, young people will also often come up to you and ask to practice their English. All of the people in the shops and hotel that we have met have been very friendly and kind to us. Our guides have been wonderful and so helpful. We are so thankful to them for all the work they have done to help us bring Ethan home.

Guangzhou

We are in Guangzhou now, sitting at Starbucks and writing this (free internet). One of the members of our group compared this place to West Palm Beach, tropical and clean. Nanjing is a great city, but when you are walking down the alleyways some of the odors are pretty strong, kids just squat and do their business in the streets, it is a real Chinese city.

Yesterday it took most of the day just to get here and we discovered that Ethan isn't a great traveler. Today he has been pretty happy and he is eating rice cereal for us 2-3 times a day. With the bottles I think he is overall feeling more full and content. We got photos done today for his visa and filled out lots of paperwork. Tomorrow (Monday) he will have his medical exam and Tuesday we have our Consulate paperwork submitted. We also took group pictures which I will post. We were joined here in Guangzhou by 2 other families who also adopted kids with cleft lip/palate from another province.

We're on our way to Guangzhou!

We are leaving today for Guangzhou (used to be Canton) where the US Consulate is located. We will be there for 5 nights. I may not post every day if internet access is expensive and we may not being doing a whole lot during that time. Probably a lot of swimming with the kids and paperwork for the US Visa. We will be staying at the White Swan Hotel.

Yesterday we visited the Natural History Museum in Nanjing. It was interesting for Liam but Nyla complained the entire time until we told her she couldn't swim unless she stopped. I don't have pictures ready to post but I will try to post some from Guangzhou.

Ethan is doing well, although more fussy the last couple of days. He is cutting teeth, possibly hungry and grieving for his nanny. Those are our theories. We are feeding him according to his schedule from the orphanage, exactly what they told us except he will only take a little bit of rice cereal before he clamps his mouth shut. He is a big baby and so I think he needs more solid foods. We are just trying to figure it out day to day. Liam and Nyla are doing well also, getting a little stir crazy stuck in a hotel for so long, doing better than I expected ultimately. We will all be happy to get home. Thanks for following along.

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Last night we celebrated Ethan's 1st birthday. It feels a little strange to have a child for just 3 days, yet he is already a year old. So much has happened in his life that we know nothing about and he knows little about us as well. From looking at his memory book from the orphanage (which was made by a Half the Sky nanny definitely), we could see he had a happy life. We appreciate that Ethan has opened his heart to our family after only a few days. That is a big change for a child and we must seem so strange to him. Yesterday, he started to cry if we left the room, especially when I would leave. I took Nyla swimming for a little while and Patrick said he cried the entire time. He also started taking a few spoonfuls of rice cereal from me without crying or fighting me. A big accomplishment for a child who will not put anything in his mouth other than his index fingers and the bottle. I think he is starting to trust us.

So we had a great little party last night and the kids had fun playing together. Everyone has spent the last few days bonding with their children, so we haven't spent a lot of time together. It was nice to just let them play and interact. Here are some pictures, Lillian and Lauren are the 2 other girls who were adopted in our group.

Nanjing

Yesterday we all had naps and decided to go out for supper and a walk. I took some pictures around the Confusious Temple where there are lots of shops and tourists taking rides on the river boats.


I got the backside picture of a toddler with a very revealing outfit on, he is potty training and it saves on diapers!


Ethan was kind of cranky this morning, he is cutting several teeth. I decided to stay at the hotel with him while Patrick took Liam and Nyla to a beautiful park in Nanjing. Our guide Min is very good to us and will help with whatever we need. The park reminded Patrick of the Chinese Lantern Festival in Toronto last summer but it is open 365 days a year, it is lit up every night. They went during the day and still enjoyed it, the only complaint was the heat.





Tonight we are having the other families over for pizza and cake to celebrate Ethan's 1st birthday. I will post pictures tomorrow, we may go to the Natural History museum.

Its Official!

We went back to the adoption registration office yesterday to finalize the adoption. We were asked a lot of questions and took pictures. The parents who adopted Lillian (age 2) are the sweetest first time parents I have ever seen. They fight over who gets to hold her and they are just over the moon with happiness. China's new regulations will prevent them from adopting again and they are such great parents. Lauren (age 5) is doing great with her mom and brother as well. The other night we took the kids swimming and since it was a new experience for her, Lauren would only go in with her mom. Then she splashed Alex and laughed and laughed. Regina and Alex are patiently trying to teach her some english words. She loves coloring and crafts.



The rest of the day yesterday we just relaxed. It was so nice to just take it easy. We have been taking the kids swimming almost every day and Nyla can now swim without her bubble. I didn't have room in the suitcase and I guess that was a good thing. Swim caps required in the pool!



Nyla and Liam are bonding well with Ethan and seeing them play together it makes me glad that we brought them. I expected Nyla to have a hard time but she is really good with him. Last night they splashed around in the tub and had a great time.


Today she did start to say that "daddy is nice to Ethan and mean to Liam and me". So it is starting... Liam is mostly concerned with the activity of the day and occasionally pays attention to his brother. Liam and I are probably having the hardest time with sleep so it tends to make him hyper. They are both excited to get home as well, Nyla wants to have Isabel over to play, the other day she asked if I could call her mom (while on the plane to Nanjing). Liam will be happy to get back to soccer, he only got to attend one practice before we left.

We have eaten a variety of american and chinese food, so the kids haven't complained all that much. Ethan will still not take solids from us he only takes the bottles and he is a finger sucker. He doesn't put toys or anything else in his mouth. I emailed the cleft clinic in Pittsburgh and they said not to push the food while he is bonding. So we will wait to see what they say when we get home.

Today is another rest day. It is so hot, we took the kids out for a walk at 9am to the grocery store and Nyla acted as if she was melting. We are not even sure if we will do much touring unless it cools off and I don't think that will happen. So we might have boring posts from here on out, sorry about that.

First Day in Nanjing

We are very happy to have Ethan in our arms after a long journey. He is a wonderful baby boy and we are a lucky family. As my sister posted yesterday, we flew from Beijing to Nanjing on Sunday and checked into the Mandarin Garden hotel. It is a great hotel and we are so fortunate that we were able to get a suite. It was a little extra over the standard room rate but the extra room is so worth it. Hotels are expensive in Beijing and Guangzhou, so we would not upgrade. There is a sitting area with a couch for Liam to sleep on and a crib for Nyla (yes a crib, we are going to have issues back home). The bedroom has a crib in it also for Ethan. We weren't sure how he would sleep and thought it might help to have the kids seperated for now, plus he can have some quiet time for naps.

We went to the adoption registration office at 10:30am and Lillian (2 years) was already waiting for her parents Allison and Roland. After about 5 minutes, Ethan and Lauren (5 years) arrived from Lianyungang SWI. Ethan was very quiet and cried occasionally if we paid too much attention to him. We asked questions and received a gift of a bracelet for Ethan plus they gave us a wonderful growth and development book. In it there are reports and pictures of a woman working with Ethan. I asked if this was his nanny, they said she was a 'grandma', which I believe may be someone who is sponsered by Half the Sky to come in and work with 2-3 babies at a time. We support the HTS nanny program and the reports we receive copies of are just like Ethan's. I know that HTS has programs in Lianyungang orphanage, we feel very fortunate that he benefited from their presence there.

We brought Ethan back to the hotel and held him for a while until he started to fall asleep. We put him down for a nap and when he awoke he took a bottle from us but he had to hold it in a certain position to drink it. I was trying to hold the bottle up but that was wrong and he couldn't drink. I little while later when I tried to feed him mashed banana and rice cereal he didn't take to it well. I got some into his mouth but he kept rubbing his nose and then some of the food came up into his nose and seemed to bother him. His feeding schedule stated that he ate these foods but maybe I have the wrong consistency, not sure. We are going to try congee (rice soup) this morning and see if he can eat that. I will be happy when his palate is fixed as it seems uncomfortable for him to eat anything but milk or diluted juice. He also drools a lot (like Quin did). We need to buy cloth bibs today,

Ethan's weight is great, he is heavier than any of my kids were at 1 yr, about 20 lbs. He sits up well and is very interested in toys. He is very observant and hearing seems great. I thought he couldn't crawl because he cried when I laid him on his belly. But last night we had Lauren, her mom Regina and Alex over for pizza (Papa John's delivery) and Ethan started scooting around on the floor following the kids. He does a belly crawl.

Ethan slept all night and awoke around 5am. After 6 days in China, this was the first night that Nyla and Liam slept until past 5am also, Liam has been up at 3am for almost a week. Maybe they needed to see their brother to sleep well. I am glad that everyone rested well. This morning we go to the adoption registration office at 9am to finalize the adoption. It will be official after today!

Yesterday I didn't feel well after we received Ethan. I don't know if it was nerves, but I think I might have a little stomach ailment. I really wanted to go home and realized we still have 10 days left in China. Today I am feeling better and I am again so happy that we have this room until we fly to Guangzhou on Saturday. We spend 5 nights there in order to get a US Visa for Ethan, it is a great city and the White Swan hotel is also beautiful. We will happy to be home though and hope these days pass quickly. Patrick had a bad experience with our hotel in Beijing, ask him about it when he gets home!!!

Thanks for following, hope to see everyone soon!

A new addition!

Tania is having trouble with blogger from her hotel in Nanjing, so I am pleased to announce that they have received Ethan and he is doing great! They got him around 10:30 this morning (Sunday morning) and he was a little upset at first, but Tania reports that he is starting to smile at the kids and is now taking his bottle.

Here are some photos she sent from the airport in Beijing and after receiving Ethan.

I will post again when I hear from Tania.

All the best!

Paola

About Beijing

I just wanted to talk a little about Beijing. 13 million people live here, it is very crowded at many of the tourist sites with both Chinese families touring and many other nationalities like Europeans, Australians and other Asians. I was here 9 years ago and the city has become so modern and trendy since I last saw it. Our hotel is downtown and our room is just as a standard American hotel room would look. But all around us are designer clothing & electronic stores. In the mall nearby there is Nike, Nine West, DQ, McD's, etc. Capitalism is what we see. We have also seen all kinds of construction related to the olympic games in 2008.

Our guide also talked about child abandonment being pretty rare in Beijing. She reports that traditional values still hold true in the countryside. But here in Beijing families are happy with a boy or girl, they live close together and both will help the parents as they age. In the countryside, families still prefer a boy to take over the farm. Things are changing very rapidly in China and I hope that means less children living in orphanages over time.

The Nguyen family on Tiananmen Square, very very hot, we are melting!

Nyla has a smile on her face for pictures, but is really crabby and hot! They thankfully held it together through the morning tour.

The Forbidden City, many many tourists here, have not seen crowds like this in a long time!

Lunch after sightseeing at a local Chinese restarant. The other 3 families traveling with us have been very patient with our children. Only 2 of the families are also traveling to Nanjing, we fly with them tomorrow! We are all excited to meet our children, they are all great families to travel with.

Great Wall of China

Today is Nyla's 4th adoption day, what better way to celebrate than a trip to the Great Wall of China! Its hard to believe that 4 years have passed since she was first put into our arms. It is not easy traveling around the world with 2 small kids, but I am glad they are here together on this special day.

So the day started around 2am with the kids waking up. I put the DVD player on and decided to use the Lunesta sample to get a few more hours of sleep (thanks FMW for helping with that). The kids did better than I expected at the Great Wall. They climbed to the first tower, there were people everywhere, it was hot and crowded. Patrick decided to climb to the 4th tower and that is the picture below of the scenery. I was here in 1998 and it was just as beautiful as I remember. The kids thought it was pretty cool too!

After visiting the Great Wall we went to lunch and had an 8 course Chinese meal. Everything was great. There are stores attached to all the restaurants - and below is a picture of Liam in front of some awesome dragon sculptures (thats for you Ryan). Of course we couldn't afford to bring any jade home, so I took lots of pictures! Immediately after lunch the kids crashed and they slept on the bus while Patrick joined the group in visiting the Ming tombs (I saw them in 98). We are back at the hotel now, Patrick has crashed and soon I will too!