Orphanage visit

Today we went for a visit to the orphanage where B has spent all but two weeks (and the last two days) of his life so far. I must say that, in terms of orphanages, this is a pretty nice one. The orphanage director met us when we arrived and showed us the ward where B lived. According to her, this is the only ward that currently has babies in it. There were about 20 to 25 babies. She told us, though, that the orphanage has kids of all ages, but once they get a little older they are placed in foster families, which is why there were only babies there.

This is a picture of the front entrance of the orphanage building...














And here is a picture of the three of us outside the building...















We also were able to take a few pictures inside, even though we were told that we can't take pictures of the other babies. The reason for this, we were told, is that some of the other babies have already been lined up for adoptions so we couldn't take their pictures because the other families wouldn't like it. I have no idea why. Before getting B, I would have been thrilled if some other family had gotten a picture of him in the orphanage that I could have seen. But, given that we were guests there, and the director was so nice to us, I didn't think I should press it. We were allowed to take a picture of the crib B slept in, and there were babies all around it.

We asked the director about B's name and got the story behind it. Turns out there is a famous actor here with a name similar to the name the director gave B. B was given a name after this actor, but the name was changed slightly to mean that B will have an even better life than this famous actor. The director said that while some orphanages just give the kids names that include the orphanage name, or the city they were found in, this orphanage gives thought to the names, and gives each baby a unique name. She said that she believes that giving a good name is the first step in starting the child on a good life.

I was a bit worried about taking B back to the orphanage so soon after we had just gotten him, since I thought it might be really hard on him (and us). Turns out it was the best thing we could have done. We had a real turning point today. When we arrived at the orphanage, the director was excited to see B again and held out her arms to him, and he went to her. Oh oh, I thought, this is not going to be good when it comes time to leave. But then we went upstairs to B's old room and the minute we entered the room he started to cry. He only calmed down when DoT took him from the director and held him. Turns out he's adopted us too, and was crying because he thought he was going to be left behind.

When we left the room with him, he was a happy guy again. And since then he seems to really have opened up to us. He's teasing us, playing with us, laughing lots and, for the first time, when we got back to the hotel today he didn't start crying when we came into the room. And while for the last couple of days we haven't really been able to put him down or leave him on his own, tonight he is tottering around the hotel room on his own and checking everything out. (By the way, yes, he is walking on his own, although he still falls regularly.)

Another good thing that came out of today's visit to the orphanage was that they showed me how he drinks out of a bottle. When we first got B, we were told that he drinks out of a regular bottle (not a cleft bottle like we had brought with us). So, we went out and bought a couple of regular bottles. For the last couple of days, he's been drinking out of them, but I wasn't sure he was getting much liquid out of them. (Because of this I've also given him water out of a sippy cup with the valve removed. And while this seemed to work better than the bottle, it too wasn't a stellar success.) So, I pulled out one of the bottles when we got to the orphanage. The director and nannies there looked at it, smiled and said it was a good bottle. But then I said I wanted to compare it to their bottles since I didn't think he was getting a lot out of it. When they gave me his bottle from the orphanage, it was clear that the nipples in their bottles have much bigger holes than a regular bottle. So, I pointed this out and one of the nannies took the bottle I had brought, got out the scissors and made a big hole in that one too. So, now we're all set. They also showed me how to make the formula he is used to drinking. They add some rice powder to it, and serve it hot, hot, hot. Much hotter than I would think you would give a baby. But when we gave him a bottle of it there, he didn't even flinch, so I guess he's used to it that temperature. They were also nice enough to give me a package of the rice powder they use with their formula.

After the orphanage visit, we headed out to see if we could find the spot where B had been abandoned. We had directions from the orphanage director, but still had a lot of problems finding it. In the end we had to pay a guy on a motorcycle Y10 to take us to it. Turns out we were in the right area all along, but where the documents had said he was abandoned at a "tunnel", this was more like a big overpass. But, our guide Lily confirmed it was the right spot. She talked to people at a little store near there, and they agreed that this place was called the tunnel. (Although no one remembered a baby being abandoned there.)

Since it took about 1.5 hours each way to drive to the orphanage, and awhile to get to the town where B was abandoned, by the time we got back to Guangzhou it was mid-afternoon. We thought we would have some down time then for the rest of the day, but we were only back in the hotel room for about 30 minutes when our guide called and said she needed us to get to the "security office" right away. Because we are trying to push our paperwork through faster than normal, we needed to make a quick trip into the office for one of the many steps in the process. That took us through the rest of the day. We stopped at a little noodle shop near the hotel for supper tonight and now we are back in the hotel room for the night. DoT and I are exhausted and feel ready for bed, but B seems to be going strong. It's going to be a long night.

I'll end here, with a picture (us with the orphanage director), and a short video showing B in what hopefully is now his normal happy state. :-)

Oh yeah, one final thing. MJ asked about his size. DoT thinks he weighs about the same as E does, but he is a bit smaller than E and A. We don't have a tape measure with us, so are going by memory, but I'd say he is a couple of inches shorter than the girls. Not much though, given the difference in their ages.

Adoption Day!

Hi all, yes Dad is actually going to contribute something this time. K tried to take the credit for the 111 posts so far until I corrected her by pointing out that 3 of those were actually mine - so this post should pretty much even things up. Look for my next post in about 6 months, or when B graduates, whichever comes first.

Today B is officially adopted into our family. We went back to the Adoption Centre and finalized the paperwork this morning. He is so patient I can't believe it - the girls would have had about 100 tantrums each by now (maybe he is saving the best for later on the airplane).

B went to sleep about 9:30 last night (just barely ahead of his dad) and we basically had to wake him up this morning after 8:00 (I beat him there - I was up at 3 AM for the day). He is now having a nap (I didn't dare lie down with him). He cried once or twice last night but not for long at all. There were some tears this morning though when he woke up and realized where he was (but they didn't last long). Don't worry B, those rumours about us are mostly false.

After paperwork we headed down to the Pearl River (3rd largest in China) and found a restaurant (check the title - it is funny). B seems to be able to eat large amounts of rice and had some goose and broccoli to go with it. Once he had his first poo, life was good - he is such a typical guy it is hilarious.

One sure way to get him to smile is to touch something then wait for him to do the same. On the way back to the hotel this morning, we took turns touching the tv screen in the back of the cab. He would smack his hand on it with much gusto then give you a big grin as if to say "your turn". Last night in the grocery store he was very good at copying however many fingers I used to touch the cans and that was the first smile I got from him. The orphanage report says he likes toys which make sounds (ooops I can already hear my mom heading to the store). We'll likely pick something up for him today (although he played with a chopstick, then a little plastic card for most of the morning).

He is walking (we have so far held his hand but he can probably do it himself). He has been making some baby babble and the orphanage director was interested to know he would have surgery on his cleft soon because she said he is just starting to try and talk. The nurse at CHEO figures they can get him in for surgery in about a month). He also has a bunch of teeth but will definitely need some braces later. His feet are often swinging while you hold him and his fingers are always moving. The two-year old clothes we got for him are a bit big so I guess he is right at average height for his age.


Below are a few pics from today:


On the way to finalize the adoption
















The Pearl River
















Lunch time
















Nap time

Two posts in one day!

So, here is my second post of the day (I think the last time that happened was probably when we were last in China!)

We just got back to the hotel room, with B. So far so good. I'd like to say everything went off without a hitch, but it didn't. Nothing major, just some anxious moments. We arrived at the adoption centre at about 2:15 p.m. B was not there yet, but we saw him arrive about 10 minutes later. We were receiving B at the same time as a group of about 12 or so families, all from the USA I think. B handled the hand off very well. There were very few tears, and the ones we did get were only about an hour or so later. We were still at the adoption centre at that time. And an hour after that. And an hour after that. All told we were in that room for about 3 hours. But some of the delay was our fault... okay most of it was our fault. Turns out we needed to pay the fees in Yuan, not in American dollars, as we thought we had been told. We didn't have the Yuan (see the post below about our difficulties in getting money exchanged, it continues) and DoT and our guide needed to go to another floor to get the money exchanged at a bank. Luckily there was a bank right in the same building. There was quite a line up though, so it took them about an hour to get the money exchanged. I was quite relieved when they finally got back, as the number of people in the room had dwindled to about 3 or 4 and I had visions of the orphanage director demanding B be handed back. :-)

Anyhow, after we left the adoption centre, we headed for a department store since we found out from the orphanage staff that B drinks from a regular bottle. I had assumed he would either drink from a cup, sippy cup, or bottle specifically for cleft palates. So we didn't bring any regular bottles with us. No problem though, we picked up a couple at the store.

We had supper at the food court of the shopping centre -- yummy noodle soup. We also did some more of the paperwork there. Finally we headed back to our hotel room. We got back at about 7:30 p.m. Since that time B has played with DoT a bit, eaten a couple of cookies, cried some more, and is now trying to drink from one of the bottles we bought. We tried one of the bottles with him shortly after we bought it at the store, and I'm not sure how much water he is getting out of it. He works away at it (ind of like biting the nipple) but I'm not convinced he's getting much out. We go for a visit to the orphanage the day after tomorrow, so I'll ask them to show me there, how he drinks from the bottle. Hope we can get enough liquid into him until then.

We were told again today that he only goes to sleep at 10:00 p.m. and wakes up at 6:00 a.m. He seems pretty tired right now, so I'm hoping he will go sleep before then, but who knows. He's fighting it pretty well, right now.

So, here are a few pictures from the big day...



















And finally, yes, for those of you with sharp eyes... he is eating a sucker and holding a second in one of those pictures. Both of which he was given before he came to meet us. After he stuck the first one in his mouth with the wrapper still on, I took pity on him and unwrapped it for him. Seems he has a sweet tooth. He'll fit into our family just fine. :-)

Ni hao!

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay in posting. It has been a busy couple of days and we just now had time to figure out how to connect to the Internet from our room. The time change between Canada and China must be more severe than even we figured because the 24-hour business centre was closed last night when we went looking for some help. :-)

So, anyhow, here is a short recap of our last couple of days. (I know, you're all just interested in what happens from today on anyhow, when we will have B.)

Day 1 -- travel

We left home at 5:00 a.m. on Friday to head to the airport for our flight to Shanghai, via Beijing, via Vancouver. 30 hours later we finally arrived in our hotel room in Shanghai. A pretty exhausting day (actually two days as by that time it was 11:00 p.m. Saturday in China.)

Day 2 -- Shanghai and more travel

Yesterday, we went on a whirlwind tour of Shanghai. It's a pretty cool city, and one I'd like to visit when I have more time (at least another day). We joined a city tour which was all in Chinese, but our guide (Lily) translated some for us. We went to the Oriental Pearl tower which offered a great view of the city. It kind of reminded me of the CN tower. When you took the elevator up to the viewing location it took 48 seconds to travel up 88 floors. Pretty fast.

Here is a picture taken of (part of) the city from the tower observation deck. As you can see, it is a bit hazy in this city (although I didn't notice it until I looked out from the tower).















After the tower, we visited a museum on the history of Shanghai. It was pretty interesting. You can tell though, that China is growing and changing super fast, because Lily refers to things that were made in the last 20 years as really old. Basically it seems that anything in China that was here more than 10 years ago is considered old. This was reinforced at the museum, where most of the exhibits demonstrated Shanghai in the 1930s or 1940s. Here's a pic of DoT and I at the museum...
















Then we had a pretty funny experience. The tour guide took us to visit what we were told was one of the 50 most successful businesses in the world (Hillman's, a German company). Turns out we were part of a live infomercial. Basically we went into a room and watched a guy demonstrate the amazing slice and dice capabilities of knives. Pretty funny. I think the tour guide operator must be getting kick-backs or something if he brings tours into there. Worked out pretty well for the company though, they made a lot of sales to our group.

Then from there we headed off to the next place that the guide was getting kick backs for -- a jade factory, which we were told before we ever went in that there is no good jade in Shanghai, so don`t buy anything from there. We went into a boardroom and sat there while everyone chatted with the store personnel -- mostly about where in China they were from, at least according to Lily. Then we were done and we left. No purchases, by anyone, there.

Then we went on a boat tour on the Huangpu river. This was nice, but I'm told it is much nicer in the evening, when all the buildings along the river are lit up. Since were catching a flight in the evening, day time was our only option. It was nice to see along the river, where on the one side were buildings with old architecture, and right across the river were the new skyscrapers. Here is a pic of DoT and I on the boat...















And a couple of shots of the river banks from the boat...


(The tower in this picture is the Oriental Pearl, that we went up.)














Then it was lunch time and we went to a local restaurant, where Lily ordered for us. (Good news, Lily doesn't like fish either, so completely understands when I don't want any part of the tonnes of fish or seafood dishes available here.) The meal was very good.

Then it was time for a visit to a shopping section of the city. We got off the bus and walked around and visited the shops. Where we were, there used to be a big Buddhist temple, but it has now been turned into shops of all kinds. I almost bought a painting at one of the shops, but decided against it in the end, much to the chagrin of the woman trying to sell it. She actually followed us out of the store and down the street, and agreed to sell it to us for the original price I said we would pay. But by the time it got to that point we didn't have time as we needed to be back on the bus. Lily has assured us that she will take us to some nice studios in Beijing when we are there, where she says there is great work by some of the more famous Chinese artists. We were also hampered somewhat in our shopping efforts because so far we have not been able to get any money changed into Yuan. DoT brought a bit of Yuan with us, mainly in case we needed to get a taxi from the airport to our hotel, but not enough for any serious shopping. The hotel in Shanghai wasn't able to change our traveller's cheques into cash. Not sure why... maybe we were trying to change too much (Cdn$200). It wasn't very clear. And so far, we have found communication here in China much more difficult than the last time. Nobody seems to speak English, so we are reliant on Lily to translate. Which isn't a problem, but we don't want to call her constantly and drag her here to help us. (Now that we are in Guangzhou she is staying in a different hotel, close by. Not in the one we're at.)

Here's a pic from the shopping area we were in...

(Lily took this picture for us since it shows the contrast between the old (shopping area) and the new (buildings in the background).)


(This picture is of a tree we saw, in the market area, full of lanterns which I thought looked pretty cool.)




After finishing our quick shopping, we got back on the bus and saw a few more sites (just from the bus) as we headed for the airport. We flew to Guangzhou at the end of the day and arrived in our hotel here around 11:00 p.m. last night. I slept great (8 hours uninterrupted... don't remember the last time that happened .. but I'm still tired), but DoT was awake today from about 5:30 a.m. We go to meet B at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon, and then have a bunch of appointments to legalize the adoption and start the paperwork for his visa. I'll try to update the blog tonight (assuming we can get him to sleep at a decent time), with pics and info about B.

Bye for now.

We're on our way!

I intended to put our itinerary on the blog, so everyone would know where we are on any given day, but it turns out I didn't bring the itinerary with me. So, all I can tell you is that we're on our way to Shanghai, via Beijing, and right now we're in the Vancouver airport. We had a couple of hours between our arrival here and our departure for Beijing, so we had a nice lunch.



So how is that for up to the minute updates?!

We'll try to post again from Shanghai when we arrive there in, oh, about 18 hours. :-)

K...

P.S. I miss A & E already! :-(

Happy New Year!!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Holidays!

So, it's all over for another year. I love Christmas, but I must admit it's nice to have a bit of a break from all the last minute shopping and preparations. This year, for the first time ever, we stayed in Ottawa for Christmas. And I even made the big Christmas dinner -- turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, veggies, and rolls. And everyone ate, and no one got sick. :-) I searched, and searched, for cranberry sauce in the grocery store -- as much as I love homemade cranberry sauce, I thought that might just be the straw that breaks the camel's back -- but in the end finally gave in and bought a jar of lingonberry sauce, which it turns out tastes just like cranberry sauce. But, according to the label on the jar, is also great on fruit and ice cream.

The girls made out like bandits this year, even though DoT and I only bought them one present each. They have very generous grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, daycare provider and playmates. Our cleaning lady gave us a great gift too -- and really the fact that this lady cleans our total disaster of a house every few weeks is truly gift enough!

Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of good shots to post. Much of Christmas morning DoT held the camera, and apparently he didn't realize that photos of the kids are not acceptable if they have me in my pjs in the background. But, here are a couple of shots...

Posing on the stairs.

Reading one of the books at grandma and grandpa's house.

Christmas morning breakfast of kinder eggs.

Opening presents Christmas morning.

We are scheduled to leave for China in 13 days! Yikes. So far we have done next to nothing to get ready for the trip. Vaccines? Yup. Everything else. Not so much. I have printed a packing list, but have done nothing to start pulling things on it together. Also, I need to find all of our paperwork, which alone could take days. And, there were lots of other things that I really thought it would be nice to do before we go -- like make and freeze some meals for when we get back, organize the basement, and get some furniture for B's room. Right now the poor kid only has a crib. And if he's like our other two, he's not going to want to sleep in it when he gets back anyhow. We have nothing into which we can put clothes, which really isn't that much of a problem since we have no clothes for him anyhow. But, hey, some day we're going to have to dress him, and you know, a bureau might be a good thing at that point.

Well, the troops are getting restless. Gotta go.

Happy new year everyone!