Day 15

I finally figured out how to drain the tub.  These modern hotels are so complicated.  The kids figured it out days ago, but didn't share with me.

I am so in love with this little, dark-eyed beauty.  What a sweet, cuddly, little thing.  Such a gift.  These words seem so trite, but honestly, my heart flips over and over when I hold her.  Her eyes just bore into mine, and then I'm blessed with a soft smile or a very gentle kiss.  She is loosening up more and more, starting to figure out that all of this is a very good thing.

We leave Guangzhou tomorrow night and will be en route to SC for 25 hours. We'd be grateful for prayers for a very smooth trip...

This morning, we had our interview with the American Consulate, and took the oath for immigrants, as Lily's representatives, along with about two dozen other American adoptive families.  Lily is not an American citizen yet.  That will happen when we touch down on US soil in Los Angeles at 9pm (Eastern time) on Thursday night.  Twelve and a half hours after that, God willing, we land in Charleston!!!

We found the second park near our hotel.  So beautiful!  Oh, how these people love their parks.  Part of it was quiet and peaceful, a "palm tree forest", and part was filled with hundreds of people, dancing and exercising to live music, playing card games and ping pong, and a game that looks like "hacky sack" with a little feathered thing---they can kick it backwards over their heads, from person to person.

This is probably our last blog post, unless we have free time and Internet access during various layovers.  Katie, please stock up the kitchen with fresh fruits and salads, and remember where you park when you pick us up from the airport!

Thank you for all your love and prayers.  Looking forward to returning to the land where pets are friends and not food.  (No dog's feet, please, Tim and family...).

The Palm Tree Forest

Exercise Area in the Park

Tropical foliage in the park

Picturesque pagoda and palms in the park

After oath and visa application at the US consulate

This is from Nathan:
Yesterday we headed to the top of a mountain where the air was very clear and fresh, unlike Beijing.  We took a cable car up to the top and ended up in a bird sanctuary.  They had cranes, gulls, and ducks. Faya enjoyed feeding some of the birds her crackers.  I, however, just stayed back and watched. (I would like to keep my fingers!).  We then headed down to the bottom.  It was about an hour-long walk.  We passed some plants that we recognized from home, such as camellias and tea olives.  As you might have heard from my mom, I ate some pork feet.  Although I wouldn't exactly say that I "ate it" because I only took a one-hundredth of a bite. It tasted sort of weird...

Later that evening, we went in the Pearl River on a cruise.  There was a nice buffet and I got to try some different food, such as dumplings and fried rice.  We passed many lit up buildings.  Guangzhou was once known as Canton, which also happens to be the name of the tallest tower in Asia.  Canton tower is 600 meters tall.  Speaking of meters, they use the metric system here and it is very confusing.  It's 23.5 degrees Celsius in here right now.

Today, we got to go to a park.  We rented a boat and paddled around the pond.  They had interesting decorations of fish and coral reefs.  We also got to swim in the hotel pool.  My vision is pretty fuzzy right now because of all the chlorine.  We will be leaving for home in 2 days! I'll see you all then!
~Nathan

Boat Rides

This is from Mark:

Last evening, we enjoyed a dinner cruise on the Pearl River in downtown Guangzhou, population 13 million.  For such a large city, it seems very livable.

The waterfront skyscrapers and bridges were lit in audacious and brilliant shifting hues, like giant, man-made chameleons.  The highlight of the boat trip was passing beneath the Canton Tower, the tallest building in Asia, measuring 1,920 feet tall.

This morning, we took a cruise of a different sort, renting a paddle boat in the nearby Yuexiu Park, which set the pace for the day.  The kids enjoyed blowing bubbles, and we got a little bit of needed exercise too.  This was followed by ice cream and a nice walk through the park.

Lily enjoyed her first experience in a swimming pool, especially being wrapped up in a towel on Lisa's lap afterwards.  There, she gave Lisa many kisses and smiles.  She loves her mama!

The remainder of the day was spent on the mundanities of homework, an unsuccessful baby nap, and the daily trip to Seven Eleven for bottled water, milk, and snacks (I passed on the tempting duck necks).

Thank you all again for your prayers.  We continue to feel so blessed.

Two guys and five rams (3 visible) in Yuexiu Park:

 Blowing bubbles on the boat:

Souvenir shopping:

Just hanging out with Katie:

The Canton Tower!

Great evening on the water:

Fun in the pool!

Big dragon and Spunky Monkey (Faya):

Colorful dancers

Dutch Girls and Pig's Feet

Today we stumbled upon a bizarre place---a beautiful park filled with interesting trees, colorful flowers, a waterfall, and also fake cows, giant wooden shoes and plastic tulips.  Peter did not understand our question about that, so we don't have an explanation.

We rode a cable car up to the top of Baiyun Mountain and hiked down.  The park was fresh and cool.  There are sweet-smelling tea olives blooming here now, and many other familiar plants (camellias, azaleas, etc)...In fact, China is where most of the Charlestonians got their flowering plants 300 years ago.  The Chinese refer to their parks as the "lungs" of the city, and they are indeed a place to go breathe deeply.  Groups of people gather for morning exercises (see photo of ladies dancing with fans), Tai Chi, dancing or playing badminton, and ping pong.

At the top of Baiyun is "Asia's largest birdhouse", a walk-through aviary filled with birds both strange (large cranes from northeast China) as well as familiar (peacocks, and I'm pretty sure I saw gulls, too).

Halfway down is a Buddhist temple where once upon a time, the younger "vegetarian" monks supposedly longed for meat so much that they secretly cooked up some pig's feet.  They almost got caught, threw them out the window and retrieved them the next day, only to find out that they tasted better having been washed by the cool mountain spring.  So that is how boiled pig's feet have become the traditional "snack" on Baiyun Mountain.  Mark, Faya, and Nathan all had a taste.  I worked on keeping my breakfast down while photographing for your viewing pleasure.

Yesterday, we found one of two incredible parks within walking distance from our hotel.  More fresh, green paths through the cool woods smelling of tea olives!  We are a long way from the smog of Beijing.  Further into the park, we came across the very festive decorations going up for the New Year. Huge decorations---everything here is done on a grand scale---giant red and gold dragons, lanterns everywhere.  Quite spectacular!

Lily is doing better each day, even tolerating the menfolk somewhat.  Great little eater.  Mark called her Chew Mei (Her name is pronounced She-oo May).  The only thing she has turned down is rice, which I find hilarious.  Don't tell the adoption authorities, but I gave her cold milk and she liked it just fine.  Thankfully she accepted the stroller today, so the circulation is returning to my arms.  She didn't like the cranes and peacocks at all and I don't blame her.  They seemed big enough to swallow her whole.

We have been waiting on blood test results (all is good) and now we wait for our US consulate appointment on Wednesday morning.  We have a good bit of free time until then, so we'll do more sightseeing, and then resting during the afternoons.  In the evenings after supper, Lily enjoys bath time and snuggling.  Last night, we listened to toddler sing-a-longs on my iPad, except we changed the lyrics to "Old MacDonald Had a Farm. ("And on this farm, he ate a                ...").

Baba and Little One

 Morning exercise in the park

View of Temple from Cable Car:

Big Chinese Crane

Who looks stranger?!

 Boiled Pig's Feet...

This little prawn went to the market, this little prawn stayed home...

Beautiful Day in Guangzhou

We enjoyed a bright, sunny morning touring the city.  It is a lovely place, very green ,with lots of tropical vegetation filling the medians and roadsides.

The most interesting stop was the Buddhist Temple---a beautiful, peaceful place, lush and fragrant with the heavy scent of incense.  It was also very clean.  Dozens of people were scrubbing every inch of the place in preparation for the upcoming spring festival (Chinese New Year).  Our guide, Peter, said they burn incense for 2 reasons: for prayers lifted up, but also to chase away mosquitos, as a Buddhist would never slap a bug and kill it...!

The Chen family ancestral hall was another interesting stop.  Members of this particular family, from far and wide, donated money to build a place of worship (of their ancestors).  They visited to pay their respect to their ancestors, and to ask for prayers for themselves, but only twice a year, so it was used as a school as well.  Now it belongs to the government and houses a wonderful folk art museum.

We enjoyed a bag of tasty, Chinese onion sesame pancakes and then stopped at one of the main pedestrian shopping areas for a quick look.  I'm kind of glad we ran out of time at that point and headed back to the hotel.  It was crowded and noisy, and Lily was ready for a nap.  Interesting to see, though.  A mile long street closed to cars, filled with shops both inside and out.

Dinner was very interesting last night.  We went to a popular local place and enjoyed another fabulous meal.  We passed on the buffet---various raw fishes, pig knuckles in pig's blood soup, shredded eel---My shrimp and cashew dish was great and came with bamboo (which I'm happy to report was digested just fine).  The kids slurped down rice noodles with beef and hot, steamed buns.

Little Moi Moi is doing just fine.  She's a great sleeper--hope that continues!--- and she loves to eat.  She seems most content in my arms.  She's still very quiet, but those big, black eyes are taking everything in.  She has plenty of smiles for Faya.

Buddhist temple:

 Katie at the temple, incense burning in background

 Baba and Xiu Mei at Chen Family Ancestral Museum

 At the temple:

Our guide, Peter:

 Buddhas

Recovery Day

We are in Guangzhou and very glad to be here...all five of us together...at the same time. A little situation at the Nanning airport yesterday: no ticket for Lily! I assumed our agency intended for her to be on my lap for the hour long flight, but apparently that's not allowed (and one does not break rules in China).  With minutes to board, we were told the plane was full.  Mark would have to catch a later flight out.

Things could always be worse, I know, but thoughts of navigating a new Chinese airport at the end of a very tiring day with the kids and too much luggage had our stomach in knots.  All except Lily, that is.  For some reason, she chose that moment to be more relaxed and happy than she had been all week.

Much fast talking across the counter by Hannah and we found out there was one seat left! Our spirits soared.  Five minutes later--"Sorry, plane is full". Three minutes later-- "You now have a seat".  We ran for the gate and didn't breathe deeply until we were tightly buckled in our seats.

Our hotel is beautiful, we found a Starbucks, Lily and I had a good nap and all is well today.  Except for her medical exam this morning, we are taking it easy today and learning our way around.

Let me back up...Yesterday we finished paperwork in Nanning.  Mark took the kids out to lunch while Moi Moi snoozed right on schedule, after her lunch of oranges, bread, and warm milk.  Our quiet, shy, tiny girl has bonded to me.  Xiu Mei follows me like a shadow, never more than two feet away.  I am delighted that she loves to be held and cuddled.  I worried that the visit to the orphanage Thursday might upset her, but she was quite happy to stay in my arms.  Insisted on it, in fact.  She is warming up to Mark and Nathan, but it's hard for her.  There were no male caregivers in the orphanage.  She is very content with Faya!  The big sister has been so patient and loving.

I've been mooching off kids' plates of noodles and fried rice most evenings.  I finally had a chance to order a grown up meal last night.  Wouldn't you know it was so hot and spicy.  I couldn't eat it! I think I breathed fire, Chinese dragon style...I realize we talk about food a lot.  It's just fascinating in this country.  No part of the animal is wasted (and you can get it all at the neighborhood Walmart).  In local restaurants, there's dog and cat on the menu (no, not for us).  Cat is supposedly good cooked with snake.  Fried bees. Fried worms.  Fried anything.

Note to my Aquarium friends: it is sad to see shark fin soup everywhere.  I'm looking forward to bringing Lily to the Aquarium!  She will really enjoy the snack tank--I mean, touch tank.....

It is quite a sight to see my tall, 14-year-old son, down on his knees, softly whispering "brother loves you" in Chinese.  His patience and gentleness has paid off.  Today, Lily marched all around the huge hotel, holding tightly to his hand.  I don't know which one was happier!

Faya just lost a tooth! The Chinese tooth fairy will leave a few yuan tonight, perhaps.  Or maybe a crispy bug--haha!

Guangzhou is the final stopping place for all Americans adopting from China.  At breakfast, we saw many families with their new children.  Babies, toddlers, older children.  Many with special needs.  A lot of families are traveling with older, biological children, like us.  The parents are older, like us.  We can do this!  And having the older children along is great when we can't see without our reading glasses to get the key card in the door, or read the fancy floor numbers in the elevator.

The medical exam was brief, chaotic, and carried off in assembly line style.  Kids (many we had seen at breakfast) carried in and out of various exam rooms.  Once again, we saw Chinese efficiency in action. Lily did fine, except they didn't let the mama in when they drew some blood.  I watched through a filmy curtain and had a hug and a lollipop waiting when they brought her back to me.

Below is a post from Nathan (from Thursday):
Today was a great day.  It started with us going to Xiu Mei's finding spot. It was a chilly and rainy place.

Next, our guide arranged for us to visit a middle school.  Faya, my Dad, and I waited outside the gate while we were waiting for the school to open.  Tons of kids from around 6th to 8th grade were waiting with us.  As we headed in, I noticed more and more kids looking at Faya and me! Not many kids were used to seeing blond-haired Americans.  I saw them laughing and smiling and pointing.  I just smiled and waved back as I continued not knowing what I was doing.  The classrooms were really small and crowded, and the desks were old style wood.  Our guide told us that Chinese teachers are very strict and tend to throw chalk at the students if they talk.  We came out of the school a bit later and there were kids lined up all along the edges of the balcony on the five story school.  Over 2000 students were waving goodbye to us.  (Certainly felt different from Pinewood.)

Our next spot was at Lily's school where she stayed for the past year.  The caretakers there were very nice and kind to their kids.  They had shows like Tom and Jerry playing as we walked by.  We got to see her classroom and the bed where she slept.  It also happened to be a child's birthday, so I got to have a huge piece of cake with little clementines.  Now I am back at the hotel relaxed in my bed.  And just a tip: If you're planning to go to China, learn how to say NO (to photos).

Hundreds of middle school children watching us leave:

Middle school girls:

 The most popular boy in China:

 Holding hands...

Angel Child

Late dinner in Guangzhou.  Instant noodles again in hotel:

Mom, Dad, Nathan, Faya, and Lily had a pretty crazy day, but they made it safely to Guangzhou! According to my dad, Lily is a good traveler.  They're planning on sending me a longer blog update to post (with pictures) in the next day or two after they get settled in!
~Katie

Hengxian

Today we traveled to the city of Hengxian, to see and experience Lily's birthplace.  I will never, ever find the words to express how special this day was for us all.  How inadequate this blog is.

We hired a driver and traveled with Hannah about 2 hours outside of Nanning.  The first thing I should tell you is that this was a small city, by Chinese standards.  In my mind, I anticipated a small, rural village.  It was a town of a mere half a million.

We passed fields of sugar cane, woven with rice fields and Jasmine.  (Hengxian, or Heng County, is known for its fragrant jasmine tea and it is delicious!).  Oxen grazed by the highway.  We walked through the open market bursting at the seams with fresh produce, herbs and spices, motorbikes; a cacophony of sounds and smells, and curious stares.

We visited Lily's "finding place".  If you are familiar with China/one-child policy/adoption issues, you will understand what this means.  The details will be for Lily to share someday, if she chooses.

Then we arrived at the "kindergarten".  This is where Lily lived from age 2 until now.  It's a regular school, but also a place where some of the children live 24 hours a day.  We were so very graciously greeted, and so kindly treated.  I am humbled and grateful for the experience.

It was clean and brightly decorated.  The children were so lovingly tended to.  We met her teacher, her 34 (3-year-old) classmates, a precious 6-year-old buddy from the same baby orphanage, and the main caregiver among others.

This day was mainly for Lily---closure.  Loving, encouraging words.  A celebration.  A thousand photos (mostly with Nathan and Faya-- are you tired of hearing about the blond children?! We are...).  What a blessing for me.  I never could have imagined such tender emotion from the caregivers.

We Americans think we have it all figured out.  Halfway around the world, political and cultural differences aside, the human heart is the same.

Lily and her friends:

Lily's classmates

Hello everybody!
I just wanted to let yall know that I changed the settings so that you can post without having to sign in with an account.  When posting a comment, it should work if you choose "anonymous" when it asks you to choose from the selection next to "Comment as:".  Mom said that some of you had emailed her about not being able to post comments, but hopefully the problem has now been solved! :)
~Katie

From Mark...

Lisa and I had a quiet celebratory dinner last night.  Red wine and a room service chicken dish, complete with a chicken head.

We had a slow morning. Lily slept in again, sideways as usual, and still fit just fine on the roll away bed.  Our Lily-putian is so tiny!

The hotel's breakfast buffet is very good, serving a combination of American and Chinese cuisine.  Faya and I tried chicken feet yesterday.  They were about what you'd expect.  Today I had Saury (knife fish), which tasted like sardines.  Hannah, our facilitator, told me that I should have eaten the head too, as fish heads are considered quite a treat.  Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not.

We now have a few days to wait while our Chinese documents are being processed.  We spent most of the day at Mt. Quingxui Park about two miles outside Nanning.  It was beautiful and tropical, containing a large pond filled with thousands of koi, a restored nine story Ming dynasty pagoda, and a statue-filled park.  Lily was completely off her formerly very regimented schedule, but did great.  She is such a trooper.

Nathan and Faya were minor celebrities.  Blond-haired Caucasians are not common here, off the tourist trail.  They kindly accommodated numerous requests from the locals to pose for photos.  One giggly young lady was particularly taken with Nathan.

Thank you again for all of your prayers.  We continue to feel peace and joy on the other side of the planet.  Thank you, also for your comments and emails.  We can receive them, but replying is usually a problem.  God bless you!

Feeding hungry koi

 Celebration dinner! (Note Gamecock head at right)

 Cheerios!!

Chinese strangers and blond kids

Where to start?!?! Sweet, beautiful Xiu Mei! Quiet and still at first.  Now, little smiles and big smiles are slipping out.

We walked into a conference room at the Guangxi Province registration office yesterday, and there she sat on a couch between two orphanage officials.  Sweet little, round face and big, black eyes.  She clutched a small orange and a plush, strawberry purse full of candy (supposedly to share with big sister and big brother, but she didn't want to hand it over).  Brave little girl.  I cannot imagine being in her position.  I know this is all good, but she has no idea.  Everything she has ever known has changed.

She has cried, and it is soft and quiet and heart-wrenching.  She likes to have her forehead rubbed.  She loves playing in the bath tub!

This girl loves her noodles! And warm milk---she drinks a cup down, almost without a breath.  The Chinese do not give anything cold to young children (that's bad for the digestive system).  No ice cream at least until age 6.  She likes soft toys and adores her big sister.  Still a bit nervous around Nathan and Mark.

Her name means "beautiful, graceful plum".  Mei Mei means "little sister" and a variation of that, "Moi Moi", is a nickname she is known by.  Her good friend, nicknamed Bing Bing, was adopted by an American couple just two weeks ago.  Also, her friend Min Min, 2 weeks ago.  We have renamed Faya (the VERY excited big sister, who is bouncing off the walls) "Boing Boing".

While riding back to the hotel today, our wonderful coordinator/guide gave us each a stick of sugar cane to celebrate.  (Sugar cane is a major crop in Guangxi Province).  We learned to bite and chew (sweet and very moist) and then spit out the fibrous part. Very delicious!

Next door is a huge Walmart.  Everything you could ever need is there, except you have to recognize it.  Also, squid, live frogs (not for pets), chicken feet, and so much more! Chicken feet are good for your skin, I've learned.

The adoption was finalized today.  Mark and I will celebrate tonight with a glass of champagne, but we are tired and don't want to leave the children, so it will be room service in pj's.  God is good. We are so blessed.

Hotel Lobby---Decorated for Chinese New Year

A BIG smile!!!!

Chicken Feet!

 Octopus and Squid at the local Walmart

First photos