Day 2 -- The Yellow River Scenic Area

On his last trip, David and my dad decided to take a taxi to the Yellow River Scenic Area. This is perhaps the Chinese equivalent of Mt. Rushmore. I should know more about the history, but will have to look it up when there is a spare moment. The guide told us they were the heads of two emperors, Huang and Yan, but that's all we know.

This trip he was determined to go back and he convinced a few in the group to join us, even our guides decided to add it as an attraction. As soon as we arrived and left the bus we were whisked onto a hovercraft boat and taken out onto the Yellow River. Unfortunately, this happened so fast that this is the only picture I got of the hovercraft.

The boat took us out to a sandbar that appears when the tide goes out. 

Fortunately for us we timed it well. When we landed and disembarked there were many Chinese there to offer us rides on horses and ATVs. David, of course, could not let the opportunity pass. 

See us way out in the distance? That's probably right about the time that I'm telling him to slow down. I kept reminding him we now have 10 children, we can't afford a stay in a Chinese hospital.

You can tell he wasn't really listening. 

After spending more than a week in two big cities, Shanghai has a population of 22 million and Zhengzhou 9 million, it was nice to be out of the city. The park area had many beautiful paths and it was the perfect spring day to enjoy them.

There was even a peacock farm. Mazie really enjoyed feeding them. She got a big kick out of throwing the corn kernels.

It was one of the few times that she wasn't crying. There were fewer tears today, but still plenty of them.

We spent quite some time just walking and enjoying the weather. The plan was to try to find the way to the top of this.

At every turn there seemed to be more stairs. David would tell us not too many, just about 50 or so.

I'm glad he's not the one teaching our kids math. We never did find the way to the top, but we did find one of these.

And instead of finding the path to the top, we found this...

I can't believe he convinced me to do this.

He was so nervous he borrowed a stroller for the baby.

There was some sort of temple at the other side. I know there are probably many prayers being offered there.

Thankfully we made our way back down the mountain and only had to cross the bridge one way. The view from the bottom was much nicer in my opinion.

The bridge is in the background. The large pole in front was actually a giant speaker which played Chinese music. It was a beautiful park. 

Little Mazie was in good spirits with Dad on this second day, but cried whenever he left or Mom touched her. This was harder for me than I had anticipated. I knew her transition would be difficult, but was a little unprepared for so much, so very much, crying. It was hard to want to mother her and to have her turn to Dad, and it was hard to see so many tears. I knew the bond she had would make this difficult, but in the long run will be good for her.

I'll post about our third day in Zhengzhou when I get another spare moment. Thankfully, she has really turned a corner. She's laughing and playing, she only cries when she's tired. She still prefers Dad, but is happy with Mom. It has been so wonderful to see her finally feeling happy again. There is undoubtedly a long way to go with bonding, but it has lifted my spirits to see her smiles and hear her giggles.

Lost in Translation

On Gotcha Day, orphanage workers and nannies do their best to tell new parents how their child was cared for in the orphanage. Each parent receives a paper detailing a schedule, favorite foods, medical care, etc., then on Gotcha Day they are on hand to answer any other questions. It's hard to convey all this information in one emotional moment.

This is the last paragraph of a new page given to us on Margaret's Gotcha Day.  Without meaning to do so, they pretty accurately captured this sweet girl's day.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

She's Ours!

All our official Chinese adoption paperwork is finished and Liang Qi is now our daughter. Yesterday morning we left the hotel. Margaret (still mostly being called Qi Qi) is always grateful to leave our hotel room. 

Although the elevator makes her quite nervous. She always grabs on extra tight as the elevator starts and stops. 

We then went back to the same building and room where we had Gotcha Day the day before.

This was hard for poor Margaret. It had been an emotional day for her and even I found it hard to be back there so quickly. The moment we walked in the door, she cried, and cried some more. I spent most of the wait time walking in and out of the building. She enjoyed watching some older boys play and they enjoyed performing for her.

 We very unceremoniously signed a few more papers and that was it. She is officially our daughter.

We left that building to go register with the local police department. It was a matter of walking up 6 flights of stairs carrying the baby and all the accouterments and then waiting for photocopies and getting a picture taken. Since we didn't take any pictures all I have is another of her adoption paperwork.

She napped on the bus and then stayed asleep for more than 2 hours. We had to wake her up to go get her passport photo and then we applied for her Chinese passport. Now we wait a few days to receive that passport. It means a few free days for sightseeing and bonding. There were still many tears yesterday. We've seen a few little smiles and there were less tears, but yesterday was still hard for her. We're hoping that each day gets a little easier for this sweet girl. 

Margaret Day!!

This morning we loaded on a bus and drove 10 minutes to a local government building with 13 other families all waiting to meet their 14 new children (one family is adopting 2).

There is nothing like experiencing a Gotcha Day. It's emotional, exhilarating, nervous, and exhausting all rolled into one. All these families are in one small room and meeting their newest family members. Emotions run high. Parents are excited to meet their children, nannies are often sad, and the children are often confused and tired from their journey and nervous because of the new faces and surroundings.

After an hour wait at the government building, Margaret arrived! Adoptive children have different ways of dealing with the stress of leaving their old environment and being cared for by parents who look different, sound different, and smell different. For Joseph he regressed and didn't walk for three days. For Peter, he stopped eating. For our little Margaret, she cried. And cried. And cried. As you can see from the picture, she isn't at all happy. Her nanny briefly walked into the room and there were many, many tears shed.

Thankfully, she eventually stopped crying and fell asleep for a well-needed nap.

We spent the afternoon and early evening in the hotel signing papers. Margaret spent her time going back and forth between sleeping and crying. It wasn't until we headed out for dinner that we saw her first smiles for us. Then when walking at the mall we found she loves music and lights. She played and enjoyed looking around at all the stores.

At bedtime, she pointed to the crib and took David's hand and asked to be put in the bed. I'd heard of this from other parents, but after 9 children didn't believe there would be a child who wanted to sleep in their own crib without any hassle, but that's exactly what she wanted.

Lupin House

Today we had an experience unique to this adoption. We were able to go visit the foster home where Margaret has received most of her care. Lupin Home was an amazing home to several small children. The Lupin Home began when five founders decided to help orphans in more rural areas receive better medical care in Shanghai.

 The house was beautiful, very clean and bright, and the children there were very well cared for. Although the children were shy at first, they eventually warmed to us. It also could have been the jellybeans we brought to share. How fortunate that Margaret was able to receive such good care from such loving people. The kids were so cute, I just wanted to scoop them all up and bring them home with me.

Orphanages from rural areas send children who need surgeries or specialized medical care. Margaret arrived here when she was just a month old. She received the care she needed and then, rather than send her back to the orphanage, the workers found a foster family to care for her. This amazing woman has cared for QiQi (Margaret) for the last year. She clearly loves her very much. Please pray for her. This is her fourth or fifth foster child to be adopted. It still isn't easy, but the care she provides these children allows them to bond with their families and ways that would be impossible without her loving care.

The biggest blessing of the day was that we were able to spend a few hours with our sweet girl. We had a chance to see her in an environment where she was a little more comfortable. We were able to hold her, to play with her, and have a glimpse of her personality. We were also able to have a good conversation with her foster family about her care and daily schedule.

She is definitely a sweet girl. She was wary of us at first, but by the end of the visit we were playing and she was laughing. She likes toys and noises. She has a sweet way of folding her hands and saying thank you. 

It was a real gift to get a chance to spend some quiet time with her before Gotcha Day where she will be in an unfamiliar place surrounded by unfamiliar people.

We had a wonderful lunch and then went back for a nap.

We cannot say enough to thank these wonderful people who do such wonderful work helping these orphans. We are so blessed for all they've done for our sweet Margaret

Second Day in Shanghai

It was raining this morning. We grabbed some umbrellas and sloshed our way to breakfast. When we finished, it was more rainy than when we left and we decided a nap was in order.

When we finally woke up, the rain had ended and we grabbed a taxi to visit the French Concession area of Shanghai. We followed another self guided walking tour, but were a little smarter and downloaded a map before we left the hotel. Another post will have to be dh telling you about his IT issues here in China.

It turned out to be a rather nice day. There was a light drizzle, but it was warm enough we didn't mind.

There were many European bakeries on the tree lined streets and you could almost imagine you were in Europe. We had cheese tarts and a latte to complete the European feel. Those who know me know I love my coffee, but for some reason I can't bring myself to order from Starbucks here in China. It just seems more like a chain, and we always try to enjoy local fare. It also rubs me the wrong way to see a Starbucks on virtually every street corner.

This garden was beautiful, although we're here out of season. I'm sure in a few weeks it will be amazing. Despite the rain, there were old men playing Mahjhong on stone tables and even a few practicing Tai Chi.

We followed our tour into an out of the way tangled web of markets. It was a beautiful mix of hand crafted items and food markets.  Of course there were also many trinkets sellers too, and bars, and strange meat on a stick, and these too.

Along the walk, we could see into little alleys where there were more residential apartments.

Art Deco buildings and even planters and street lights seem to abound in Shanghai. We decided to end the day with dinner at an Italian restaurant. Again, come to Shanghai and eat Italian? It was delicious though.

First Day in Shanghai

We started our first day of site seeing with a walking tour of Shanghai. We know from experience that the only way to battle through jet lag is to walk. So after only about 6 hours of sleep in almost 48 hours, we got up and walked. 

We started with a shopping strand. It was amazing to me to see all the western stores. There was the Gap, a Disney store, a huge Apple store, even a Tiffany store. It also seemed as though Starbucks has also taken over here as we must have passed at least a dozen of them.

Even here they seem to have Beauty and the Beast fever. I thought my girls would get a kick out of this storefront.

We walked the strand very early before any of the stores were open. Still the women gathered in the streets to dance.

After leaving the shopping, we walked the Bund. Perhaps the most well known tourist area of Shanghai.

 When David was here 20 years ago, most of those sky scrapers on the Pudong side of the city were not here.

The buildings on this side of the river, however, are much older.

Our hotel is just a block or two from this clock tower. We here the bells chime all night. Hopefully that will lessen as we get over our jetlag. In the distance is the pineapple building. I took this picture for Sophia, my pineapple lover. :)

After the Bund we walked through an old shopping area. Think trinkets, more trinkets, and more trinkets.

After all this walking we stopped for dinner. We went to a Spanish tapas restaurant, because one always goes to China to find good tapas.

It was excellent!