A Whirlwind

I didn't have a chance to post on Tuesday and since I'm almost at then end of my second Wednesday I figured I better get something blogged~even if it's short!
Tuesday we packed and checked out of the hotel in time to get to our mid-afternoon appt. at the Consulate. Our presence in China was verified:) and we took an oath and we were done. Then several families from our group grabbed dinner at McD's and boarded a bus to Hong Kong. We didn't get in until after 10 PM and we had an 8:20 flight (which means be at the airport checking in by 6:20 AM) so it was a short night. Both flights went well (Shiloh was amazing) and we arrived safely in MN at 1:21 or so.
After passing through the new immigrant line Shiloh is now a US Citizen. We were met coming out of international arrivals by almost 60 friends and family(including kids) and a mass of kids breached security as they came running to us. It was a little overwhelming for Shiloh but I just held on to her and she did great!
Here's the new family photo...

Immigration and Shamian Island

Today we needed to stay in our room between 10 AM and noon in case the consulate had questions about our paperwork. We waited but no news was good news and all our immigration paperwork is in order. Some people have been running into problems because of home studies but everything is in order and we were approved. We will go to the consulate tomorrow afternoon for the ceremony which is our last official step in the adoption.

After lunch (noodle bowls in our room) we went with the rest of our group to Shamian Island. Many adoptive parents stay at the White Swan hotel on Shamian Island but our agency chooses to use a very nice hotel located near two parks that is about a 10minute drive from Shamian Island. Shamian Island was once a British enclave and the US Consulate used to be located there so the buildings are very Western. It’s also were the US Immigration clinic that we went to on Saturday is located. Shamian Island is well known for shopping now. We were able to get some fun stuff and we also enjoyed a Starbucks iced coffee!

Shiloh had taken a marathon nap in the morning (2 ½ hours) but didn’t sleep at all this afternoon. We were a little worried about a “meltdown” but still decided to go to a local Cantonese restaurant with two other families. She did great and really enjoyed congee (watered rice) and banana. My favorite was the curried vegetable/fruit pizza and Todd liked the fried rice the best. There were 6 adults, 3elementary aged kids, and 2 babies and the entire meal cost about $60 and there was a lot of leftover food. It was a great deal! We were a little worried when we first started looking at the menu because the first several pages were all things like fish heads and octopus but everyone found something they liked.

Our camera is not working now so I included a few shots of Shamian Island from Wikipedia.

We had another very good day with Shiloh. A couple highlights:

•When I was in a store shopping Shiloh got very upset (we had borrowed a stroller from the hotel and we had the sunshade up so she couldn’t see us). When Todd put the shade down she calmed down right away from seeing him (previously she would only calm down with me)

•She laughed and giggled this afternoon when we tickled her~ even with no nap!

Tomorrow afternoon, after the appointment at the consulate, we will take a bus to Hong Kong. Although Hong Kong is not far away the ride will be about 3 ½ hours because we have to go through two separate customs checks where we take out all the luggage. Please pray for smooth travel and health for our group.

Seeing Guangzhou

Today we all slept until about 8 AM! Shiloh woke up happy and we all enjoyed the buffet. They have quite a mix of western style breakfast and asian style breakfast items. I had french toast, Japanese soba noodles and dim sum all in one meal. Shiloh had rice cereal with apple juice which she really enjoys. Several times I got up from the table and she didn't fuss or bat an eye while Todd fed her.

After breakfast we went to the Chen Ancestral Hall which is now a Folk Art Museum. The museum was a beautifully restored building with a courtyard. The different examples of folk art were really beautiful, they ranged from embroidery to carving to painting. The doors on the entry way were huge and the roofline carvings were extremely detailed. Next we visited a tea house and were able to sample different types of tea.

We returned to the hotel a little after noon and played with Shiloh and then had noodle bowls for lunch. Shiloh took an amazing 2 1/2 hour nap! We met three other familes for dinner and enjoyed *most* of the dishes! We ended our evening with ice cream at McDonalds.

All in all we had a great day! Rather than feeling like we were working to get smiles today it felt like she was just happy in general.

A Medical Exam, Paperwork & A Japanese Dinner

Today was the day of the dreaded “medical exam”. We left bright and early at 8:30 AM to beat the rush. On our way to the exam, our guide Lineker told us we could not make copies of the exam info. He then went on to say, “You take your babies to doctor when you get home and if they don’t do a better job than this exam, get another doctor!”. Basically, the medical exam is just a checklist for immigration into the US. They want to make sure you aren’t really sick. The biggest pieces of info we gathered from the exam were that she weighs about 17 ½ lbs. with a wet diaper and all her clothes and she has ear wax. We’ve noticed before, and it was very evident in the exam, that she doesn’t like to be restrained at all so there was definitely some screaming when they held her down to get her length and when we had to hold her arms and head so they could look at her ears.

After the exam we stopped by a grocery store where we were able to pick up some noodle bowls for meals in our room, some more diapers, and a few snacks. I was a little disappointed that they didn’t have Lays chips because after trying Blueberry and Mango flavors I was looking forward to trying lychee flavored. We did get some Steakhouse BBQ Pringles though which definitely have a beefy flavor to them. When we got back Todd went to the paperwork meeting which lasted almost two hours. He was able to complete all our paperwork for the adoption and immigration into the US so we should be done with a 3 1/2 + yr paper trail.

In the evening, the most of the group met for dinner at a Japanese restaurant in the hotel. It’s been nice to touch base with some of the families who went to other provinces when they left Beijing and find out what their journey has been like.

Thank you for your prayers for our bonding process and keep them coming. Shiloh is doing great and we continue to see good steps each day. It takes a little bit less each day to coax a smile and she is more interactive with us when we play. I think there is a lot of truth to something I read about having to teach children from orphanages how to play. We had fun putting “hats” on her today and by this evening she would pull them off and wait for us to put it on again.

Friday Travels

We woke up Friday morning and enjoyed our last buffet breakfast in Chongqing. Again they brought us the egg custard and again Shiloh loved it! After breakfast we went back to the room to pack. While Todd was packing (yes, he’s a much better packer than I) Shiloh and I went upstairs to drop something off with the Sheltons. While we were there another family, the Dirks, returned from a shopping outing. The three girls sat in the hall and played with one another. It was so fun to see them start to interact with each other!

After we (read: Todd) finished packing, we went out in search of lunch. Another dad from our group showed us the way to a dumpling place they had tried early. After picking up the piping hot dumplings (10 for a $1) we went to the grocery store to get noodle bowls to eat with them. While Shiloh took a nap we ate our lunch. The dumplings were very good!

At 3:30 we met the group downstairs and headed to the Chongqing airport. I will preface our flying adventures with a word to the wise: Don’t fly Sichaun Airlines! It took forever to get checked in. Todd was one of the last three and they said there were no lap tickets for those three families in the system (or rather they could see it but not print it) so the group leader needed to purchase new tickets. Todd finally got our tickets but then the last family was not able to get a ticket at all on this flight because they had maxed out their quota of oxygen masks so at the last minute the dad had to stay with their baby while the rest of the family (Mom, Grandma, and three other kids) flew on with us. Then, as we went through security they stopped us because the system had randomly given names to the lap infants of other adults in the group. There was lots of yelling in Chinese between our guide and the security before we were finally able to get through. Then we went to the gate and discovered they had changed the gate. We were the last ones on the plane. We also discovered that Todd had been given a first class seat (really only a little more leg room on Sichaun Air) but they wouldn’t let me sit there with the baby instead because of the oxygen masks I suppose so I ended up sitting between two guys—one of whom was very nice and the other who looked at Shiloh like she had the plague—you could just see him thinking “great, I’m stuck next to a baby” even though he was sitting in my seat! Anyway, when all was said and done we got to Guangzhou (and so did the dad and baby who only had to stay an extra hour or so in Chongqing) and finally into our hotel room by 11:15 or so and received our luggage a little after midnight.

On a positive note, Shiloh did great! She only fussed once or twice for a minute or two and was content the rest of the flight. We are getting anxious to go home and are getting a little tired of living in a hotel out of a suitcase. We will finish the US Immigration requirements here in Guangzhou and then will begin our trip home on Tuesday with a bus ride to Hong Kong and then a Wed. morning flight home.

Thursday in Chongqing

Today Shiloh woke up bright and early at 5:45 am. We've been getting up around 6 but today decided to try giving her a bottle and putting her back to bed. She slept until about 8 AM. We headed down to the breakfast buffet and had another good breakfast (and another bowl of egg custard for Shiloh). A sight-seeing trip was planned for the morning. Yesterday a large group went to the zoo but we opted out since it was sweltering and we figured we would all get grumpy! Today the trip was to the Old Town area (but apparently the locals are offended when you call it Old Town) and to the point where the Jao Lin and Yangtze rivers meet. The Old Town market was very interesting and fun. I also loved seeing where the rivers come together (since I've had so many students label the Yangtze on a map:). I also included a few pictures Todd took as we rode in the bus. It seems that everywhere we go in China there are many buildings being built or being "renovated"~and it always seems there are buildings standing empty right next to them.

The best part of the day was when we got back to the hotel. Shiloh was nearly falling asleep but we wanted to give her a bottle first. The bottle seemed to revive her and we played and laughed. I was even able to set her down on the floor with toys and walk away a little distance. She then scooted to me for a toy with no tears. During our "play time" Todd recorded the video in the previous post. She then took a long nap!

This evening we celebrated Olivia Shelton's (Lee and Dawn's little girl) first birthday (which was last week) with a little party in the hotel restaurant. We also got our official adoption documents back from the Civil Affairs office. We need to check and re-check them tonight because apparently they are fairly easy to change here but once we leave Chongqing tomorrow we will have to return if anything is incorrect before we can get our US immigration paperwork.

Tomorrow afternoon it's off to Guangzhou for the last leg of this trip. It's a 1 1/2 hour flight so please pray for good travel for all three of us. We continue to see Shiloh open up to us more and more and are so thankful for that.

First smile video

We just got back from a little sightseeing and Shiloh was feeling pretty good. Here's a video of her smiling. More to come!!!

Wednesday in China

Today was definitely a slower day. We got off to a very rough start when the bottom fell out of Shiloh’s crib at 6 AM. She hit the floor and started to scream. It was a little heart-breaking that the minute I picked her up she stopped. It makes me think she didn’t get much cuddling or “fussing” at the orphanage but I guess the positive “spin” is that she knew I would take care of her.

Shiloh definitely is showing more of a preference for me (which is pretty normal to prefer one parent over the other) so much of the day she was Velcro Baby. After breakfast, which included some steamed egg the hotel chef had made for the babies, and a nap she perked up a bit and in the afternoon we had some good interactions and even saw a few smiles when Todd was feeding her puffs. She definitely has not had table food. She barely knows how to eat the puffs but she slurped the egg down in the morning and had rice cereal mixed with apple juice for dinner.

We skipped the Chongqing zoo because it was melting hot and instead took a jaunt to the grocery store. We picked up water (even the locals don’t drink the tap water here), tea, and a few treats. My favorite was the Lays Blueberry Potato chips. They are aptly named as they do taste like blueberry potato chips:). I think I’ll try the Lychee flavored ones today.

We tried very hard to keep Shiloh up later since we wanted to join two other families to celebrate Dawn Shelton’s birthday (our friends from the Cities). She did great! She ate her cereal with apple juice and actually sat in the high chair without having to hold onto me. She also did well when I went looking for my food (it’s a buffet) and Todd walked around with her.

I forgot to bring my camera anywhere and when we were playing with Shiloh today I didn’t stop to grab the camera so the only pictures we have today are the potato chips and Shiloh sleeping as I write this. I’ll try to do better Thursday!

Officially a Woyke!

Today it became official in the eyes of China. Shiloh is a Woyke! Our day started with great skype calls with Celia, Barak, Todd’s sister and family, and Grandpa and Grandma from Japan who arrived in the Cities yesterday (Monday) and with my parents in Wisconsin. Everyone got to “meet” Shiloh over the internet. After our calls we headed to breakfast and touched base with other families in our group. It seems almost all the girls slept well. Shiloh was getting very sleeping by the time we finished breakfast so she took a nap while Todd went with our guide to take care of some business aspects of the adoption.

In the afternoon we boarded a bus in the crazy hot heat and went back to the Civil Affairs office. We submitted some paperwork, had a family picture taken, and had an official interview/ceremony where we promised to care for Shiloh and be her parents. We all had to be fingerprinted for the documents. Todd and I put our fingerprints over our names and Shiloh had to put her fingerprint next to her picture (with a little help from Mom and Dad).

After Civil Affairs we came back went swimming (actually Shiloh and I just sat on the edge of the pool and she sucked her thumb and fussed off and on—she was definitely tired). After the pool we gave her a bath in the sink which we don’t have pictures of because it was a two person job! She screamed the whole time. According to her paperwork, she had bath time at 8 every morning but judging by her reaction I think our definition of a “bath” is vastly different. Then bottle and bed and she’s still sleeping now (6 AM China time).

Some things we learned about Shiloh today:

• She likes fabric and paper! Which is so funny because Celia is a huge paper lover! Shiloh grabs paper every time it’s in reach and she always likes to be holding something soft like a burp cloth or snuggly or her clothes.


• She doesn’t have a lot of core strength and is not stable when she sits which has already resulted in a few wipeouts. It looks like she spent a lot of time on her tummy but hardly any time sitting up~ we’ll work on that. We’ve heard that kids often catch up very quickly in developmental areas with one on one attention.


• She loves to see what’s going on~ her paperwork said she likes social activity and we have definitely noticed that. She wants to see what’s happening at the next table, or why the baby is crying, or what we are doing.


• She doesn’t like to lay on her back or get her clothes changed~ that’s when we’ve really heard her cry (that and the bath:)


• She’s starting to recognize us and follows Todd with her eyes when he walks away or cries when I walk away.


• There is a smile somewhere in there~ we saw a glimmer of it playing with toys but it was too short lived to catch on film.

We had some good moments of eye contact today! Pray for continued bonding (I’ll probably write that every day!) We hope to see a real smile for us today or tomorrow but we will be patient.

We only have video of the ceremony but hope to have regular pictures later this week.

More Pictures of Gotcha!

One of the other families who is in our group (The Sheltons from the Twin Cities) emailed me these pictures of us the moment Shiloh was given to us. It’s 5 AM and our sweetie is still sleeping. Thanks for all your prayers! We all needed the rest! When I woke up a little while ago I laid my hand on her and she rolled over and held onto my finger in her sleep.

Wow, what a day.

It’s been long, hot, tiring, but oh so wonderful! The day started at 4:10 in Beijing when our alarm went off. We needed to meet the bus to take us to the airport at 5:15 AM. Once we arrived at the airport we checked our bags and waited for our flight. We flew about two hours to Chongqing one of the “Furnace Cities” of China. Chongqing is a large municipality in which Shiloh’s orphanage is located. We arrived at our hotel around noon and were told we would head to the civil affairs office at 3:00 PM.

Todd took a nap and I “nested” getting things unpacked. It was a long three hours of nervousness for me! Heart racing, stomaching turning, mind spinning…. But at 3:00 PM we went to the Civil Affairs office and after a short wait we met her. We were of course the last family (W) to meet our daughter!

Shiloh was actually one of the ones who didn’t cry—but she kept her fist clenched tightly. She did reach for toys when we held them out but then she quickly clenched them in her fist. And guess what??? She’s a thumb sucker!

Once we came back to the hotel Todd had to go down to do some paperwork but he fixed her a bottle first. We have heard they like the bottles hot so we did it much hotter than I have ever made a bottle before. I actually had Todd add cold water but it was still piping hot. She had noticed Todd making the bottle and she started to get fussy so we knew she was hungry but even so I couldn’t believe that she downed it in less than two minutes!

Now she’s napping (6:45 PM) and Todd is out getting bottled water at the store. I think it will be an early night for all of us!

Thank you for all your prayers, today went better than I imagined. Shiloh was very alert and interested. Please pray for continued times of good bonding with Shiloh and for good sleep, rest and adjustment for all three of us. We are all exhausted!

Not a leisurely stroll!

We began the morning by attending the Beijing International Christian Fellowship. It’s a service for ex-pats in Beijing. We had to show our passport to get in (although it was pretty obvious that we were foreigners according to our Chinese guide:)! Pastor Kerry sometimes mentions in a service or prayer that even as we gather for worship in MN Christians around the world have been up and praying for us. It was a very neat experience to be gathered in worship half way around the world and be able to pray for our church in Minneapolis long before they even gathered.

After church we went to a jade factory and a great lunch and then off to the Great Wall. The portion of the wall we visited was about 1 ¾ hours from our hotel. It was AMAZING for this history teacher to see it! However, I’m not sure what gave me the idea it would be a leisurely stroll—it was NOT! I’ve included a few pictures including one looking down from the tower we climbed to. If you notice in the picture looking down the line of green canopies are in the parking lot where we started. In addition to being much steeper than I expected the steps are also varying heights. By the time we climbed up and down my legs were shaking.

A few interesting facts about the wall:

• it stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the Gobi desert.
• when it was built 1/10 of the population in China worked to help build it.
• in order to get the stones to the building locations they made ice roads in the winter by carting water and then they slid the stones along.

Tomorrow morning we leave the hotel at 5:15 AM for our flight to Chongqing and sometime tomorrow we will meet Shiloh. I still can’t believe we are here.

Busy, busy day!

Our entire America World group went sight-seeing today in Beijing. There are 23 families in total and 11 other families are going to Chongqing with us. We are pretty exhasted now! We left the hotel at 8:30 this morning and didn't return until about 9:15 PM.
The morning started with a trip to Tiannamen Square and the Forbidden city. The Tiannamen gate with the large picture of Chairman Mao leads into the Forbidden city. The place was swarming with people--they expected 38,000 guests today! We then had lunch and went to a pearl store, a silk factory and the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is a large park with buildings that was a resort for the imperial family during the hot season. It's built around a huge man made lake and was probably 10-15 degrees cooler than the Forbidden City. We ended the day with dinner and an amazing acrobatic show.
And no, it wasn't a particularly cloudy day there was just lots of smog! Some interesting things we saw...A basketball hoop inside the Forbidden City

The emperor's "spies"~ Apparently these animals that are on the corners of many buildings were supposed to keep a look out and "spy" for the emperor. The more "spies" on the building the more important it was.
A rating system for bathrooms. Apparently this bathroom scored four stars because there were a couple Western toilets in addition to the "squatty potties". I would say it should get 4 1/2 because it also had a toilet paper dispenser!
The man-made lake at the Summer Palace.

All in all we had a very good, very tiring day and we are one more day closer to meeting Shiloh!!!

Beijing at last

Our flights went well and we arrived last night in Beijing at 10:20 PM right on schedule (9:20 AM in Mpls). We filled out quarantine paperwork and they came and took our temperature with a forehead scan but we, and everyone around us, were all clear. When we walked out of immigration and were met by our guide with an America World sign I got very teary--I can't believe we are here after years of waiting. We were at the hotel and ready for bed by about midnight. Some families in our travel group are already here but most are arriving this afternoon. We are very thankful for the day to acclimate.
We spent the morning exploring the Carrefour down the street (the Chinese equivilent of Super WalMart). We were looking for an umbrella to block the sun since we will be walking a lot outside tomorrow and it's hot! But after looking all over we discovered that they were sold out. The way we were directed around the store by person after person trying to explain what we wanted gave me a new appreciation for Amazing Race contestants.
Here are a few pictures of some of the items in the grocery store...

Notice the eels poking up their heads for the last breaths of air!
We passed on buying some eel for lunch and instead got a crepe/omelet type snack at a street vendor--yum! We are resting now and plan to have a relaxing evening before a very busy day of sightseeing tomorrow.

T-minus 5 and counting…

Yesterday we had a conference call travel meeting to go over many details of the trip with our agency coordinator and the 22(!) other families traveling at the same time. There are twelve families going to Chongqing Municipality who have daughters with Shiloh at Qianjiang SWI. We will be receiving our finalized itinerary on Monday and our passports and travel papers should come today. We will be leaving in less than a week and we continue to pack for us and make plans for the kids. A few things to pray for as we get closer:1. A good transition for Shiloh each of the children who will soon be joining their forever families.2. Safe travel for us and the families in our group.3. Celia and Barak who will have a busy two weeks while we are gone!