Good Things and Bad Things

 At our house, every night over supper, we talk about good things and bad things that happened that day.  It is basically our way of getting our kids to tell us about their day.  Well - our good thing today was that we visited Xuanwu Park just outside of the city wall of Nanjing.  It was interesting to see the city wall.  It was even nicer to see a little bit of nature.  Nanjing is such a big and busy city, we didn't even know how much we needed a little peace and quiet and sunshine.  

This is one of the few times Drew let me hold him today!  He is really attached to his Daddy!

Thanks to some good and helpful travel companions, we probably have more pictures of Joe and I together from this trip than from any other time in our marriage!

Super cool!

Our guide told us that standing in this gate will make you a "top student."

This is Denise, our guide here in Nanjing.  She has been very helpful for us on this trip.

Denise told us that families and couples come to the park and hang ribbons on the trees with messages for good luck.

Notice the American man beside the flag.  He is the dad of one of the moms in our group.  He has been telling us that everyone is staring at him because he is bald with white hair.  Today at the park this group of college students asked him if they could take a picture with him.  They gathered all of their friends and their college flag, and then around 15 people took pictures of them all together.  It was quite a fiasco!

Our bad thing for the day is that Drew does not seem to be feeling well.  He is still coughing and it is keeping him up at night.  Our medical check is coming up on Saturday, and we really hope that he is feeling better by that point.

Tomorrow we fly to Guangzhou.  That is pretty much the final leg of our trip.  I am looking forward to taking the next steps, getting Drew's visa, and then heading home.      

Just another day in Nanjing

Well, we don't have too much to report today, except that we did realize that we are living with a real live two year old. I think the traditional Chinese medicine is like a cough suppressant, because Drew did not cough at all last night.  He slept until we woke him at 7:30 this morning, but then he coughed all the way through breakfast.  It was significantly worse than before.  We decided to not give him the medicine any more since we really don't know what it is anyway.  We turned off the fan in the room and closed the window - so now it is ridiculously hot in the room again, but he seems to be coughing less.

Other than the cough, Drew continues to do pretty well.  As long as Joe is here in the room with him, he is generally happy and playful.  He seems a little suspicious of me, but is attaching well to Joe!  He does not really like strangers, and is happier in the hotel than when we are out and about.  However, we went shopping today for several hours at the Nanjing Confucius temple, and he did not protest at all.  He did have a couple of two year old tantrums when I tried to dress him or feed him - he wants his daddy to do it!  Although I want him to like me, it actually made me feel a little better to see the tantrums - - - somehow that seems more like typical toddler behavior than just compliance with everything we ask him to do.  He likes to throw things and sword fight with water bottles.  He enjoys bath time, and managed to push all of our clean towels into the bathtub so that Joe had to go ask for new towels in sign language at the desk (because apparently few people in Nanjing speak English.)  He is also smaller than we thought he would be.  The 24 month clothing we brought is too big.  So I think I get to get out the camouflage overalls again when we get home!  Thanks cousin Cole!

There is another little girl in our group who could use your prayers.  Her name is Larkin, and she went to the doctor today for a cough and fever.  I think the whole experience was very stressful for her mom, Amy, who seems very homesick.  Larkin is crying a lot and I think they could definitely use some prayers.  

It's Official!

Today we had another good day!  Praise God!  Although we woke up a little early (well a lot early) for my taste at 5:00, we at least got some sleep since we all went to bed around 8:00 last night.  Drew did cough some in the night, and I hope that clears up soon.  Our guide took us to get some traditional Chinese cough medicine.  I have NO idea what is in it, but it seems to have helped some.  Today we went to the Civil Affairs Office to register our adoption.  We met with the director and a nanny from Drew's orphanage.  He has been in foster care with 4 other children for the last 6 months, which I believe is a good thing.  The orphanage is a "Half the Sky" orphanage, and they had prepared a scrapbook for him to take home.  We also received a CD with lots of pictures.  We decided not to go visit the orphanage, on the advice of our escort and of the orphanage director.  Although I would like to go, it is a 4 hour drive one way. Drew does not seem to enjoy getting on the bus and going places, and we have a lot more traveling to do.  We are happy to have the scrapbook and CD of pictures.

The nanny and the orphanage director seemed very proud of Lian Bo Shi.  They said he is very well behaved and smart.  I believe he has had good care.  He seems healthy and developmentally on target for his age.  I am pretty sure he thinks of himself as funny.  I am very thankful for the care he has received.

 This is us waiting for the registration process to begin.  Many thanks to my friend Jennifer for suggesting the stacking balls.  Drew loves them and the other children here have enjoyed playing with them as well!

We signed lots of papers, and put our thumbprint on them.  All of the papers were in Chinese, so we just signed!

Drew is getting along very well with his Daddy!  They have enjoyed getting to know each other, and share a sense of humor!  

I finally caught a picture of a smile!!!

Gotcha Day!

Today has been a great day!  I will just do a quick post, but today we got to meet Drew - - - -Lian Bo Shi (We found out that Bo Shi means "professor" or "doctor," not warrior like we thought!) He was the first child brought in to a room full of waiting parents.  He cried some at first, I think mostly because of all of the pressure of being walked into a room full of strangers. He stopped crying fairly quickly, posed for a few photographs and then nearly fell asleep. 

This is the orphanage director and one of his nannies.

Here in the hotel, he warmed up quickly and has been very happy so far!  He has enjoyed playing with toys and has done lots of laughing.  He has played peek-a-boo and "Where's Mama?" He also ate noodles and a banana.  He seems to understand a lot of Chinese when we talk to him through Google translate.  And he seems to be somewhat potty trained.  We are so thankful to have a good first day!  Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

World Travelers!

When Joe and I got married, I did not even want to go on a "real" honeymoon.  If we could not get there in the car in a couple of hours, I did not want to go!  For our honeymoon we drove about 45 minutes and stayed in an inn for a few nights, and then I was ready to go home. . . . . . . .

Guess we didn't know then what world travelers we would be!

Today we had the most exciting parts our our trip so far - probably not as exciting as tomorrow, but pretty interesting, nonetheless.

We woke up this morning and had our all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet - which just puts Joe in a wonderful mood!  No matter how much we paid for the hotel, he believes he can eat enough to actually make money.  We also got to know some other families that would be traveling to Nanjing with us.  That has definitely been a nice part of this trip so far.  Next we said good-bye to our sweet and helpful guide in Beijing named Nancy, and boarded a plane for Nanjing.  

           

This is Nancy leading us around the Fobidden City with her panda bear flag.

Nanjing is very different than Beijing.  The only other Americans we have seen here are the ones that are in our travel group.  There are many universities in this city, so there are lots of college students.  We went to a convenience store and bought some interesting snacks, such as cucumber potato chips and who knows what else!  Then we ventured down the street to the subway station, which doubles as a food court/shopping area.  We ate supper at a Chinese McDonalds, and then came back to our hotel room. 

Our guide told us this is a statue of a son of the dragon.  It reminded me of The Mountain Meets the Moon, a book Katherine and I read recently for school!

This is the underground subway station that also turns into a giant mall.

A picture of the streets in Nanjing

We had to take a picture of our hotel room before we turn it into a playroom tomorrow!

The hotel is extremely nice, but there is no air conditioning so we are a little hot.  In hopes it would cool down as the night went on, we decided to go back to the subway station and explore a little!  We somehow ended up in this never-ending maze of a very crowded shopping mall with no visible end or exits.  I have never seen anything like it!  We bought a toy police car for Drew that makes noise.  No one we talked to could speak even broken English, so we wandered around until we found our way back to the subway station.  Now the hotel room is a little cooler, the jet lag seems to have worn off, and we are ready to meet Drew Boshi tomorrow!  We were excited to receive some final pictures of him today. It looks like that boy does have some teeth!  Please say some prayers for him and for us tomorrow.   

We were really happy to see him smiling!

 I am glad he is outside!

Beijing

Yesterday as we left the US, a very nice attendant with the airline found out we were adopting and moved our seats so that we would be sitting in a row with an empty seat.  Joe and I got some rest with the extra space, and were actually feeling relatively well rested when we arrived in Beijing around 11:00 last night.  

This evening we are not feeling so rested, though. I guess the jet lag is setting in!  Today we had an awesome breakfast buffet in our hotel.  We went to an orientation about the adoption process picked up our itinerary, and then went on a few tours in Beijing.  We visited the Forbidden City - the ancient imperial palace - and other famous landmarks.  We really enjoyed seeing the historical sights and getting to know the other adoptive families in our group, but we are pretty worn out now . . . . .   

Tomorrow we will fly to Nanjing. The next day, we will meet our little boy!  Please keep us in your prayers as we continue our journey!

This is me waving to our family as we left!

                                       

Inexperienced Travelers

A few months ago, when we received notice that our travel approval was coming shortly, the first thing I did (as any normal person would do!) was look over my sample packing list, and go out and buy all of the things I needed for my trip so that I would not be rushing around at the last minute.

If you ever look in my pantry, you would notice that I do not buy many snacks, since I have absolutely no willpower and eat them immediately.  But snacks were on my list, and I immediately went out to buy the snacks that I never have at home.  I was most excited about a jar of Nutella and animal crackers - - - - - I haven't bought a jar of spreadable chocolate (or whatever it is) in years because I can easily eat the whole jar in one sitting.

I have been looking forward to eating it for months.  And resisting the temptation, imagining myself eating it on the plane.

When we went through the check-in at the airport, I got the extra pat-down and had to empty everything out of my bag while Joe just sailed on through.  I kept thinking - - - - - what could I have done that is suspicious? And that is when the girl held up my jar of Nutella and said:

"You may either check your entire carry on bag (which contains ALL of my adoption paperwork)  or surrender this."

And honestly, I thought about it for a minute.  But I gave it up.  I should have asked her if I could just have a bite.  We thought maybe she just took it because it was for sale somewhere in the airport.  But that is not true.  Since we arrived 3 hours early, and our check-in process took about 15 minutes, we searched the entire airport looking for a jar.    I am convinced that the airport security girl just wanted it for herself.  She probably sat down somewhere in the airport and ate my spreadable chocolate on animal crackers :)  At least the TSA safety regulations are helping me watch my sugar consumption.  And I wonder if they sell Nutella in China.