1 Week Home

I tried to think of a catchy title, but my brain is a little mushy. So, this is it. We have been home 1 week. Kinda. While we arrived home from China last Sunday, we have not been home the entire time. I received word that my beloved Nonnie passed away as we were departing Hong Kong. Dad (under pressure from everyone else) told me she was ill and expected to pass on our last day in Guangzhou. He had been hesitant to tell me this as he didn't want to spoil our first days as a family- which is exactly how my Nonnie would have felt.

So, jet lagged and teary-eyed, we left for Kansas at 3:30 am as our time had not yet adjusted.  While it would have been easy to say we were too tired and certainly, Nonnie would have understood, I couldn't miss saying good-bye to a woman who gave me so much love. It just wouldn't have been a good example to start for my daughter. While the services were sad they were also peace-filled. Nonnie was a woman of great faith in God and love of her family which was evident.  Maddy was able to meet her Uncle John, future Aunt Mannie, Aunt Jill, Uncle Lon and cousins Scott and Nick as well as many family friends.  And she definitely cheered up my Mom and Dad- her Nonnie and Poppi. The trip also somehow started to reset our clocks and Maddy became much more comfortable with Annie.

My thought the entire time was as one blessing entered my life, another passed on. Nonnie wouldn't have had it any other way.

Our family with Fr. Tom who married us as well as performed Nonnie's services. 

Happier first events:

First ND game! ND vs. Oklahoma- final score ND 30, OU 13.  Irish are 8-0!
Cheer uniform compliments of the Farha's. Love it!

First party- Hanson's Halloween Party! 

Welcome Home Maddy!

We are home! After 22 hours of travel, 3 airports and 1 frustrating customs wait, we are home! Overall,  our girl was good on the trip- as good as a 2 year old can be on such a long trip where she doesn't have much room to play. However, the best part of the trip was coming out of customs and immigration- accompanied by our new US citizen- to where our friends and family were awaiting us. Complete with balloons, signs and lots of hugs members of our families and close friends in Minneapolis greeted us. We couldn't have asked for a better homecoming for our girl. We are excited to show her the pictures and video in years to come so she can know how many people were excited to welcome her home.

My friend, Wendy Nielson, who is a photographer (and ICU dietician on the side) came to make sure our homecoming was captured. For a sneak peak to her pics, check out her blog: http://balancingcakeandbread.blogspot.com/2012/10/homecoming.html

Big plane, little girl.

International Maddy

Our last day in China was spent in Hong Kong. The city is beautiful and feels like it belong in a futuristic movie. It sits among islands and mountains and the architecture is amazing. It is very international. The people of Hong Kong are... not as friendly as mainland China. While in China we received many interested stares and friendly welcomes, in Hong Kong we received suspicious looks and were heckled on the way up the Tram to the Peak. I won't go into it, but our trip to the Peak was short and definitely made us miss our travel group.

Thankfully, I took the recommendation of another blogger and we stayed at a great hotel with an awesome view and happy hour on the 20th floor terrace. This allowed us to watch the city & nightly light show as well as let our girl play. 

We were happy to see Hong Kong but even more happy to head home!

Hong Kong Skyline. Pretty sure there's more people in one of those buildings than all of Pittsburg. 

Taking in the Peak view with Dad

Drinks and apps in Hong Kong

Contemplating grass for the first time on the terrace of our hotel. 

Nod to the Gagnons with some bulldoggin'

Lost and Found

So I lost my iPhone 5 today in China. Many silent expletives were uttered between my ears. I even checked my little thief's pockets to no avail. hehe.

The only reason we carried them was on short outings when we did not want to lug the main camera and needed an impromptu shot.  I did the usual, suspended the service, changed major passwords (I think I got them all but if you get a strange message from me with poor English grammar - disavow and let me know!), and notified Verizon. This still nagged at me, until...

Maddy fell asleep on my chest one last time in China. I came to China with a stupid phone that can be replaced but will leave mainland China in a few hours with a precious little irreplaceable girl.  We felt that a milestone had been achieved when we took off from Zhengzhou. We went to our girl's hometown where she had been orphaned and she left that city with parents. Tonight there is another milestone. We are taking a van to Hong Kong. Maddy is traveling on a Chinese passport and so once we cross into Hong Kong she cannot come back until she someday returns as a US citizen.  One step closer to home for our little girl.

Yes, yes. The best things in life aren't things...

Signing off from mainland China,

c

The Path to Citizenship

Thursday was our US Consulate appointment. This is the last step needed to bring our girl home. We headed out in the bus early and made it without any issues. The Consulate room is sort of like a DMV complete with a play area in the back of the adoption section. An American welcomed us from behind the glass and had us take an oath. Basically, we promised that all the paperwork was true and we were all going home to the US to raise our children.  I will admit that I had a few tears in my eyes, perhaps from knowing we were almost home or just thinking that our girl was going to be an American citizen in a few days.

Red White and Blue for my consulate day!

Maddy made faces on the glass partition while Dad did the final steps of showing our passport and signing the last paper. Now, we're just waiting on the US Visa to come and we are outta here!  (OK, outta mainland China, headed to HK).

The path to citizenship never looked so cute.

Other adventures- trying Mexican food. "What?!" you may be asking yourself. Mexican food in China?! Yes, Mexican food in China. We joined some of our friends and headed for Mexican. To do so, we took the subway. I cannot explain the river of people. I've never seen anything like this- not even the London tube. No pictures of this as I couldn't even get my arms up to use the camera. Our group made it to the restaurant and the Mexican was good. And better yet- no one became ill!

Ni Hao or Hola? 

Our Chinese baby loves chicken enchiladas. 

Group of American families eating Mexican in China

And one last adventure at the China Hotel in Guangzhou- swimming. Maddy does not likes bathes. We have resorted to showers because they are faster. But she is very interested in water- fountains, throwing water from water bottles, washing her hands. We have now learned, it's being clean that she doesn't like. Hmm.... I know another girl who feels the same way about water vs baths. And she's red and furry. 

Dad guarding the pool 

Here Mom, you need to be wet too!

Out and About in Guangzhou

After our visit to the medical clinic, we napped (yes, all three of us) and then headed out to a cruise on the Pearl River. You may be asking yourself, what? Are you two nuts? A river cruise with a toddler? We may be nuts, but so are several other families and the lure of seeing the Canton Tower at night was too much for us (and when I say us, I mean Chris) to pass up.

In case you aren't familiar with Canton Tower, the tower briefly held the title of tallest tower in the world until being surpassed by the Tokyo Skytree in 2011, which was then passed by Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The Canton Tower is the tallest structure in China and carries the traditional European name of the city. 

Impressed by my knowledge? Straight out of wikipedia. If I didn't look it up and write it down, I won't ever remember why we took our 2 year old on an evening river cruise to see some tall structure that has since been passed in the record books.

Maddy did have a fun time. She ran all over the boat, played with friends and ate plenty of dumplings. It's like she was saying "Finally, you people are feeding me something I like!". 

Tuesday was largely a free day. We had a meeting tonight to prep for our consulate visit but otherwise, we were on our own. We went to Shamian Island, which holds historical significance for adoptive families if not longer practical significance. Shamian Island is a small island within Guangzhou on which the US Consulate previously was located as well as the White Swan Hotel which in years prior was where most adoptive families stayed.  The White Swan is currently closed for renovations and the Consulate has since moved but the Island has lovely gardens and sculptures. The Island appears to cater to brides over adoptive families now but the parks are still lovely. We had a nice walk, played on slides and got some cute pictures of our girl with the sculptures seen in so many adoption blogs. 

Canton Tower- we are impressed.

One of our many pictures of the tower

Dad and his girl with the tower

Beautiful skyline picture of Guangzhou

Maddy & her friend Leo

Slide ride with Daddy

Meeting the kids on Shamian Island 

What's wrong with these kids, Dad?

Exotic Maddy bird of friendship

One week ago, I took 2-3 wobbly steps at a time. Now, I run.

New Skilz

Laughing? Check.
Eating? Check.
Theft? Check.
Sleeping? Check.

...wait, theft?

**BULLETIN: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**

Random International Travel Clinic, Guangzhou, PR China

Help me.

This unsuspecting toy was last seen leaving the local travel medicine clinic in the arms of a cute Chinese girl with clueless American parents. These two people are so dense that they did not notice it was with her until they were on the bus back to their hideout.  He is 3" tall and squeaks when squeezed. If you see this toy, smack her parents who have now added Grand Larceny to her list of future career options.

Distribute these photos widely. Subject considered mischievous and cute.

What, this? I totally came with this.

OK, we will return it when we go back in two days to have my TB test read.

Trip to Guangzhou

Just call us parents of the year. Why you ask? Because our daughter had a crepe with peanut butter and chocolate sauce for dinner.

I can hear my Mom's disbelief from here. She homemade my food for most of my childhood and had a largely no-sugar policy except for special holidays. And here I am feeding my toddler sugary foods for dinner. 

I promise it didn't start this way. After landing in Guangzhou after an easy flight due to a perfectly timed 2 hour nap, we checked into our hotel with our group. Guangzhou is a large international city and the hotel reflects this. We are not the only Americans and not even the only adoptive families. We heard French, Arabic and German and that was only on the elevator to the room. After getting to our room, Maddy played for about 2 hours. She opened up more than she ever did in the hotel in Zhengzhou. She explored, played peek-a-boo, and tried on my shoes. She is starting to mimic me which I find highly entertaining. And while Daddy is clearly the snuggle favorite, I am moving up the charts during the daytime and actually have been getting her to sleep easier than Chris (Daddy goes to sleep so Maddy can wind down).  

Rather than heading out to find dinner, we thought one of the restaurants in the hotel would be easier and it offered an adoptive family rate.  And vegetables. Chris and I ate salads for the first time in 10 days. We brought cheese, a freshly grilled pork chop and apple for Maddy.  The cheese immediately hit the floor. She threw the apple pieces on the floor and after a few bites of pork chop she began spitting it out into my hand bite by bite. We then tried beef, followed by chicken, both of which followed the same path as the pork. Next up, pineapple. Good thought, parents. Small pieces of pineapple have enough weight to actually sail to the next table. This was followed by rice with vegetables. I thought we had success after a bite of rice with a pea. And then she began to grin, pursed her lips and the pea reappeared. Some more rice was attempted but this merely served as confetti. By this point, we were tired and the wait staff was glaring at us. Final try- crepe with peanut butter- I mean it's two protein groups, right? Trying to be responsible, we did have the crepe man hold off the sugar and cinnamon topping. But then the real low point of the meal (you thought we were there, didn't you?) was the chocolate sauce she tried off our plate. She ate that up.

And that's how we ended up feeding our toddler peanut butter and chocolate for dinner. Parents. Of. The. Year.

Tomorrow's a new day.

My two loves. 

Dining Out - Adoption Trip Style

Imagine you have just gone out with your family or a loved one for a romantic night out to an Asian-fusion restaurant. You picked a decent place with a nice wine selection and the right mood is set.  Then 17 families walk in and sit down right in the middle of the place.  Mind you, they are foreign but their kids are not.  It is like one big 'Meltdown in the Round'.  One stops and another begins.  Little ones who have never seen restaurants are banging plastic chopsticks on real place settings while parents quietly steal drinks of Chinese beer served in large '40 oz' bottles (Colt 45 - It works every time).

The food is served family-style as each large table has a lazy Susan in the middle where random dishes are spun round and round. With each new food that is tried, that same food is thrown onto the floor at varying distances from the child. One child, who shall remain nameless, goes into a wiggle-worm convulsion until her mother is forced to dash off outside with her.  Another night of eating in shifts.

<<aside: as I am typing this that 'unnamed child' mentioned above is sitting in my lap stuffing wads of paper in her shirt. Yes, she is two and already stuffing the proverbial bra. Apparently her grand-Nonnie did this>>

A very wise father (Jeff Dreiling - yes, say that three times and let it sink in) told me once that his toddler has the attention span of a fruit fly and that is why he set up playtime like circuit training. Balls, blocks, stroller, wagon. 2 minutes at each station and then SWITCH.  I have found this true of Maddy. At the front of the restaurant are tanks with crabs, fish, and lobster. This occupied her for about five minutes and then was completely boring.  In the last few days, Maddy has decided that she really likes to walk. Mind you, she still walks like she is leaving the Bull (the Backer for the ND crowd, and TCF Bank stadium after the 1st quarter of a football game for the Gophers), but insists on walking all over the sidewalk. Swaying and swerving from one side to the other. My only goal was to keep my body between her and traffic (reference previous posts regarding the safety of China as a pedestrian).  Luckily the one thing missing from Guangzhou are those lovely scooters.  Here it is just pedestrians wondering why the big white guy is chasing the laughing Chinese girl. 

Needless to say, dinner went quickly, nobody ate enough and we finished it off with ice cream because it is hot and sticky in this part of China (I knew I was in trouble when we left the airport and saw palm trees). Sarah is working on a post that describes our current theory of child nutrition (I apologize in advance to Justin Gagnon and will be emailing soon for advice on how to undo all of the damage currently being done to my new daughter...)   

Tomorrow should rock. Medical exam, shots and a TB test.  I think a good day for Maddy's first mother-daughter outing?

c

maddy's first official post & picture dump

jjfnfjfjjncnn  huuhiuij

This is my stroller.  I like pushing my stroller.

On the go!

This is the smile that has blossomed over the last few days

 

I just think this is such a beautiful shot of her beautiful little face. Totally unbiased, of course.

I blame you, Kelly Young, for how much this little one is going to cost me

Yes, the baby bottles that you idiots brought are completely worthless. This is how I drink water.

Guangzhou

We made it safely to Guangzhou. Maddy's first airplane ride was excellent. This is more than can be said for the bus trip to the airport. Totally inconsolable and doing the previously described body-stiffening-head-banging maneuver.  She fell asleep as we were taxiing to the runway and awoke literally 2 minutes before touchdown.

The changes in Maddy are impressive. Much more curious about our new hotel room. We have been in room for 10 minutes and she has explored more than she ever did in our room in Zhengzhou.  Another post and more pictures later.

c

Day 8- Maddy goes to the zoo

Today was another free day while we await the kiddos Chinese passports. The group headed en masse to the Zhengzhou zoo. While we were there to see the animals, I think others were there to see us- a whole bunch of white people with their Chinese babies. At one point, Chris, Maddy and I were filmed walking across a bridge. Yep, just walking. Nothing special.

Watching Maddy's face light up with curiosity as she watched the animals was the highlight of the outing for us. Followed quickly by the opportunity to get out of the hotel. Don't forget- we are living in a hotel with a toddler. Lots of fun.

In the few short days we have been a family, here's what we've learned about our girl:

1. She likes meat. That's right- skip the veggies and bread. Give her the meat. Chris is already talking about her first BBQ.

2. She loves bananas. Just seeing them causes her to drop her blocks and run towards them, making little bird noises. Hysterical. Also, leads us to hide the bananas as well as looking into stock in Dole.

3. Other food likes: peanut butter, goldfish and the aforementioned Pirates Booty. Pretty sure Maddy and Annie will be fast friends.

4. She loves shoes. We went shoe shopping yesterday to ensure we had more than one teeny tiny pair of hard soled shoes. We bought three. She wants to wear them all. If she sees her shoes, she wants them on and yells 'shoe' in Chinese (Xie) over and over.  She also likes to carry them with her around the room.

5. She is smart. Not only has she quickly figured out how to wrap her parents around her finger, she figures out toys, games and everyday tasks at lightning speed. We have our work cut out for us.

The finger wag

She's actually reaching out to a peacock, Chris is on the opposite side of the bird hut. 

Absolutely no funning.

One cutie with two dorks. 

Yelling at the ducks and swans. 

Watching the pandas with Dad. 

And finally, just a window into our "home" at the Crowne Plaza, Zhengzhou. The staff have been welcoming and understanding. Which is quite a feat for a staff serving both a mobile phone conference and 12 foreign adoptive families with toddlers.

Bathtub laundry. 

The "kitchen"- AKA minibar.

Cute girl who drags toys everywhere. 

Dinner is served.

Tomorrow we head to Guangzhou for the final phase of our journey. The legal stuff for China is done- passport is ready. Now for the US piece...

Wish us luck on Maddy's first plane flight. And be thankful you're not on this flight- 12 adoptive families, new babies in tow and lots of luggage.

Orphanage Visit

The Cap

It is Friday morning in Zhengzhou.  Thursday was another basically free day.  We took the opportunity to take Maddy to her orphanage.  This was where Maddy spent the first 10 months of her time after being found. She was not in the general part of the orphanage but was on the Show Hope 'Special Care Unit' because she was small and frail. Many of the kiddos in the Special Care Units do not make it because they are so tiny or have such profound medical problems.

The day began with a 45 minute drive across Zhengzhou in a small van with just our family, our guide, and the driver.  If you have never seen driving in China, you should do so. That being the case, if you ever have the opportunity to drive yourself in China do NOT do so. You drive with one hand on the wheel and the other on the horn. If you need to make a left turn it really does not matter what lane you are currently in, you just stop turn the wheels left and start going. We made a left turn from the right lane of an 8-lane road yesterday. Sound hard? Imagine doing it with van or better yet, a bus, both of which we've traveled in.  Don't worry, though, I am sure that Graco and Britax do not make one penny here as there are no car seats. Anywhere. You just hold onto them 'real tight'.

The preceding paragraph about cars does not tell even half of the story.  If Chinese people cannot afford a car they buy a scooter. Think Honda Spree only slightly larger, older, heavier and driving on the sidewalk.  As a pedestrian, we share the sidewalk with these things and I don't really know who actually has the right-of-way. Therefore we just walk in a straight line and make eye contact with the scooter-person and wait (with fervent prayer) for them to swerve. At least they honk at us too. Understand also that I am not talking about a random scooter here and there. There appear to be more scooters than cars and apparently 10 years ago there were basically only taxis and scooters in this small city of 12.6 million people.

Back to the orphanage.  We arrived not knowing how Maddy would react. In truth, she had only spent one night there (Sunday) since being taken to foster care in Aug 2011.  She did not melt down or anything like that. She clung very hard to me (c) during the entire visit. It was as if she was saying 'I am not staying here. I am leaving with you guys so don't you dare put me down'. We took her straight to the SCU and there a small army of smiling happ----0\0\00\ -- sort-py-\\\\\\\\\\ -- Maddy wanted to type for a second. Her typing is on par with my Chinese. Anyway, there was a small army of happy nurses who remembered little Maddy and were overjoyed with seeing her. Many comments were made about the size of her cheeks and they confessed that these little chipmunk cheeks came to fruition during her stay there. A testament to their good care! These nurses and their supervisors are WONDERFUL. The unit was clean and the kiddos were all hanging in there. They showed us Maddy's bed when she was there. It was overwhelming to see where she had spent those 10 months, but it warmed our heart that she had so clearly been loved by these special women.  Several of them extended their arms out to hold her but she would have none of it.  This is apparently something they will do to test the little kiddos and they are quite happy when their offer is refused. Lots of pictures were taken and the nurses kept commenting on how pretty Sarah is (good thing this will already be posted when she reads it.hehe).

Orphanage Offices

The orphanage was not all smiles. The babies are one thing. There are over 600 children in this orphanage and they are adding space to accommodate them.  It is clearly a place where the children are cared for and loved, but it is hard for me to see the older children who have aged-out of the possibility of adoption because any one of them could have been Maddy.  I cannot speak to what their life holds in store, but I feel very sad for them and am terrified that this precious little thing who is currently dumping Cheerios all over me came perilously close to that. To see her, who now has American parents and will soon be an American citizen with its innumerable benefits makes me swell with a little bit of pride for the 'ol US of A, but there is also sadness for what these other children will never know.

Before leaving we toured other units. All of them well-kept and staffed by amazing people caring for the children. Our last stop was quite surreal. We were taken to the director's office and given one article of Maddy's clothing with which she was found. It was a very tiny cap. To know that her biological mama put her in this hat and then left her somewhere to be found and hopefully adopted was ... I have tried and tried and just really cannot come up with the right words. I never expected to get any tangible connection with the beginning of Maddy's rough road to us.  It is a good thing to have and to hold and I hope one day she will find some comfort in this. It is nice and shows she was loved from the beginning.  Sarah signed for it in a log book and they handed it to us in a little bag. Now it will come home with Maddy to America, having started out in the middle of China with our little girl.

Maddy's Room

Maddy's crib during her 10.5 months here

The absolutely lovely and wonderful women who cared for our little woman