Last Day

Hello Everyone!

Well, we have just about made it. It's Thursday, 9AM and I'm at breakfast at our hotel. Just 23 hours from now we will be on a plane to Beijing. We are due to land in Akron at 11:30PM Friday. That will be a looonng day - about 30 hours! We leave the hotel at 6AM here (6PM Thursday).

Yesterday, Wed., was our official adoption day. We went to the US Consulate's Office bright and early to take the oath and sign the final papers so Mary Hannah is now legally ours! She is technically an American Citizen when she sets foot on American soil. I have to say after all the hype it was a bit of a let down. Got on a bus with about 15 other families from different agencies. We were told to dress nicely, only two other couples were dressed up. Got there and we were expecting this grand building - just like every other building on the block, blah. Went upstairs to take an oath that we promise to look after MH, etc. I signed a paper and that was it. Our guide will pickup MH's passport and visa this afternoon.

At 4:30PM we took the famous red couch picture. Hannah was not having any of it. We'll see what kind of pictures the photographer got. Ordered a pizza from Papa John's, pretty good but could have skipped the potato wedges, they were very dry.

Will pick-up last minute items, get a foot massage and repack tonight. Last call for anyone that want's anything from here. We leave tomorrow at 6AM so there will be no time to get anything here after today and Duty Free shops will probably not be open when we're at the airport.

It's been a wonderful adventure but we are very ready to get home and see Max and get little Miss on a schedule of eating real food! I still can't believe she is still on formula and rice! BTW, she is 19 months today.

I will miss the free breakfast buffet at The Victory but it's probably best for my waistline that this is the last one ;) We would love to come back to visit, a Heritage Tour, when Hannah is older, maybe 10 or 12. We could not have asked for a nicer place to stay and explore for two weeks than Shamian Island. Very hospitable and clean. Of course, they are primarily catering to adopting families which is mainly who stays here. The only thing that bugs us is the persistence of the shop owners. I found a way around that. By our hotel, they are all on one side of the street. So when we walk out of the hotel we just cross the street and that solves that. If I want to go into a particular shop I can just cross the street in front of that shop.

Well, need to make sure Matt and Hannah are up. Need to p/u laundry and a new stroller, we borrowed one for free while we were here. Debated whether to get one since we have two at home but with the layovers I think it's a no-brainer. Getting a cheap one for $18.75 to get us by.

Prayers, crossed fingers and toes that we will have a safe, relatively quiet trip home. We got MH her own seat, hopefully she will settle into that and sleep some. Hope our bags will make it all the way to Akron! I'm taking one as a carry-on with a few clothes just in-case.

That's all from this end of the world. Goodnight and see you soon!

Monday, June 6, 2011

**Blogger wouldn't let me upload pics. Will try tomorrow.

Good day to all. Things continue to improve with more smiles and more laughing. Yesterday we only had one meltdown while I was changing her diaper and the high point was her bath. She did not cry even once!! She even smiled as I washed her belly. What we are discovering is that she is a cranky baby when she gets up. She needs about an hour to eat and get her wits about her before you can start moving her around. Now being a parent, I want to get her out of that dirty diaper as soon as possible so the question becomes, is her being upset for a few hours (she can hold a grudge) better than staying in a dirty diaper? We will be praying and meditating for guidance on this question for the remainder of the night. I will say that Mary Hannah does much better with Lissie during diaper change. Consequently, she is doing most of the changing right now which upsets me greatly because I want to participate in every aspect of raising this child.

Our activities for the day were going to a palace that we practically ran through, then to more shopping. I swear the guide is getting a cut of everything we are spending. I can hear it now… “Here come the Americans. We will take all their money but if they pass out…. run! We all had dinner as a group again at a place that usually only serves local factory workers. However, our guide knows someone, who knows someone else, who knows the owners cat, (or something like that) so she was able to get us a privet room. Even though we had no idea what we were eating, the food was amazing and very cheap!! Interestingly though, our guide did not eat but just sat and watched with a big smile, which was a little disconcerting.

By now I have heard story after story about how folks fell in love with their new daughter's at first sight. Or how they just knew from the moment they saw the first picture that God had intended them to be together. As much as I would like to shout from the rooftops that I had the same emotions and that I was overcome with joy the moment I first saw Mary Hannah, I did not. I was so heartbroken and sad for this child it was difficult to feel any joy. I was so angry at the caretakers for neglecting her. I was so worried that we had been given an emotionally damaged child; I could not feel excited or elated. I am happy to report and want to shout from the rooftops that this feeling did come for me yesterday when for the first time she reached for me. It is amazing how a heart melts when a child reaches out for love. It was, at that point, that I knew God had placed this child with us specifically. It was at that point that I knew we are God's gift to each other. Hannah is here to teach us and we are here to protect and guide her through life. Man what an honor to be so blessed. Last night I thanked God for the love and trust he has shown me over the years. Mary Hannah is just a new chapter in this on-growing thing called life.

Each day brings us a little more closer together. Her newest thing is to straddle my belly (which requires a lot of dexderity) while placing her hands on my chest and then bouncing. She just giggles and smiles. I guess it is like being on one of those bouncy balls that we all played on as kids, just not as hard. It is so cool because we are face to face, laughing and giggling together. The bonus is that I get to seek a kiss on her forehead or nose and she responds by being coy. As a side note, this game is quite a lot of fun as long as you have NOT just eaten. If played after a big meal, it can cause some gastro-intestinal issues which I discovered the hard way.

Today we went to the Buddhist temple to be blessed by the monks. It was an interesting experience and we will post the video once we get back to the states. During the blessing the monk chanted some prayer and then he sprinkled water on our heads. The water irritated Mary Hanna, which she promptly let him know. The chant was cool although I have no idea what he was saying. For all I know he could have been chanting Coom By Yaa in mandarin. The other neat thing was the interest that others had during the ceremony as we kind of attracted a little crowed. Now no one clapped or cheered when he was done, but they may have been taking bets on the big white guy passing out!!!

Until tomorrow.
;











Saturday, June 4, 2011

First let me begin by saying that every day I learn something new. Today’s lesson……… The word “allot” means to assign or ration. The words “a lot” mean much or many. Now for the past 40 some years I have always spelled “a lot” as “allot”. Personally, I could care less because I know what I mean and evidently most everyone else does too. However it did bother one person enough to say something to me and being someone who is always open to growth (I am a people pleaser), I will do my up most to spell “allot” as “a lot” unless of course I need to write someone telling them how much to allot something or how much was allotted to me, in which case I will use “allot.” Also in the interest of good grammar, if I have offended anyone else, whether a little or a lot, please forgive my ignorance.

We have seen amazing progress over the past few days. Mary Hannah is using good eye contact and has become more vocal. We have gone through several diaper changes without any fits and we have been able to move her from crib to floor, floor to stroller, stroller to floor and floor to crib without meltdowns. She did sit in my lap today without throwing fit which made me feel a little less monsteresque. She is smiling some on her own and is responding to being tickled with some laughing. She is also much more mobile and curious which tells us she is become more secure in her new environment. She still is very quiet by nature and still pulls away from interaction with strangers or the other adoptive families. She is taking more bottles which is good, four yesterday and 3 so far today. I think we are getting the mixture between rice and formula a little too thick as she always leaves some in the bottle, which usually looks like wood glue. (Yikes)

We are looking forward to going to a Buddhist temple tomorrow and as always shopping. We have come to believe that the reason why it takes the paperwork so long to go through is for the shopping!!! All of our paperwork is done except for the American passport which we will get next Wednesday!!! So shopping, shopping and more shopping. Tonight was fun as all the families we met in Beijing who went to other providences to get their babies, have arrived here in Guang Zoe. The reason for this is that Guang Zoe is the exit point for ALL adopted children. So we all 26 of us met for dinner tonight and it was fun to learn about their experiences for the past week.

Until tomorrow. I plan on writing a lot more until I have used my allotted time on the computer.

Hello from Guangzhou

Hello from Guangzhou (yes, we're still here),
Miss Hannah is adjusting so well. She will let us hold and carry her for a while. She'll let us change a diaper for the most part. We are all bonding wonderfully, thank God. It was touch and go for a few days. We are so very blessed that God chose to match us with this very special little girl.
We are still having difficulty Skyping with Grandma W and Max. I have attached some pictures (just a very few of many, many) and a snippet of video from Gotcha Day. The original is over 13 continuous minutes. Will write and send more later. Off to the Buddhist Temple to have the children blessed and then of course more shopping.

Catch Up Posts and Pictures

Tuesday, June 2, 2011

We have made great strides today!!!! First we had a humongous bowel movement (first one in four days) and we had three full bottles. She did not sleep or cry as much and even sat in Lissie’s lap for about 10 minutes. She was sitting up some, seemed alert and curious. She still is very reserve with me and I think that has allot to do with my size and sound. I also seem to have taken on the role of having to do the “harder or more invasive things.” Giving medicine, giving baths, cleaning out her nose and so on. She sees me coming and you can tell she is thinking “oh crap here comes that huge white guy again”. We chose just to stay close to home and let the dust settle some so our only outing as a family was dinner last night and she was content to hang out in the stroller and look around. Still not smiling much and will not take anything from you (except a bottle). She still hates to be picked up and goes rigid still. She has become more tolerant of being moved while sitting in the stroller.

We are going to continue hanging out on the floor with her and giving her things to stimulate interaction with us. We will smile allot and work on touching her as much as she will let us. Soothing and light tickling. Hopefully we can get her to smile some. We are both feeling allot more optimistic today and hope that she will stay on a positive path.












Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Heartbroken, frustrated and angry. I have never seen a child who was so uncared for, that they cannot stand ANY type of touch. We went to the doctors for the passport physical and then to the Chinese consulate to apply for her passport. She cried the entire trip and screamed any time she was touched by anyone. I just sat on the floor and cried with her. Talk about powerless. I just wanted to sooth her stress and fear, but how do you do that with a child you cannot touch? So we keep trudging on. She only ate twice and when she was not crying, she was sleeping. I would say she slept a total of 16 hours.

Why am I angry???? How can a person willfully neglect a child to this degree? I know it happens, I have seen it on TV, but it has never been so personal before.

On a lighter note, LISSIE’S BAG ARRIVED!!!!!! Holy cow! She has cloths and everything!!! Now she can use her own deodorant and I won’t feel like I am sleeping next to some guy!!! I tell you, when the driver dropped off the bag, I almost kissed him.

Did I talk about how hot and humid it is here? Oh my God!!! It is HOT! I went through three changes of cloths yesterday. Unfortunately, I did not keep enough fluids going in, that were going out. As a result, I passed out while sitting in front of the hotel last night. It was so weird. Sitting reading emails on my blackberry, next thing I know, I am looking at the trees above the sidewalk. It took a few moments to figure out what had happened and once I did I figured I better sit up at a minimum. Also did I mention that the Chinese don’t like to help 240 pound, passed out Americans? Well they don’t. Even the hotel doorman who just stood there and watched the whole episode. Finally a passerby helped me up and took me into the hotel lobby. So now I have this huge knot on my forehead (I think that is where I landed) and a massive headache. And no, to all you wise crackers, I was not drunk. But with the pounding head I have today, I should have been. LOL

For Thursday, we have decided NOT to go shopping with the rest of the group and just have a nice slow day hanging out in the room AND DRINKING LOTS OF WATER. Maybe Mary Hannah will adjust just a little more. Feel a little safer, a little more relaxed. We are also going to Skype with Mom and Max today. Very excited!!!! Have not seen or talked with him since we left.

Until tomorrow.

Lumpy



Tuesday, May 31, 2011

First let me say that Lissie has corrected me on the spelling of our new girl's name. It is spelled Mary Hannah. Don't I feel like a dumb ass!!!

We received Mary Hannah about 24 hours ago and this is what we have observed so far:

- She currently weighs 17.6 lbs. at one week shy of 19 months. She goes rigid and her arms go up above her head when she is held.

- She prefers to be left alone to explore on her own. She can crawl to some degree, but not the typical arm/leg motion. She is able to prop up on one arm and turn to look in the opposite direction. She even knows the perfect downward dog yoga position!

- We did notice that she keeps the top part of her fingers closed most of the time. So, not a full on grip but just from the second joint to the tip. Although she is able to stretch all of her fingers out when she is reaching for something.

- She rocks back & forth on her knees to self-soothe, which is common with babies from orphanages.

- Her skin looks really good in the diaper area. Some slight bruising on her back which she is sensitive to. She appears to have a fungus on the bottom of one of her feet but does not look too serious.
- When she was handed off, it was obvious that she had a temperature and a cold with cough. This could be stress though as she had just traveled eight hours by car. We gave her infant ibuprofen when we got back to our room & that seemed to help.

- No one has ever cleaned this child's mouth! Her breath is very rancid. She is still on a diet of formula mixed with rice cereal: 8oz. 4-5x a day. We will continue that while we are here, no need to stress her further. We are also giving her 1.5 ml of multi vitamin drops in her formula daily. She drank about 3 oz. last night around 7pm and we put her down at 8pm to sleep. Poor girl was worn out as she slept to about 8:30am.
- We are concerned about her hearing. It's hard to tell with the language barrier if she can hear us. She has absolutely no verbal skills. She makes very little baby noises but is very alert and inquisitive. Even her crying is weak and I did get her to smile a few times.
Today we went back to the civil affairs office and went through two separate interviews with officials and Lissie had her picture taken with Mary Hannah. Did I mention that she does NOT like to be held? She cried for 3 hours strait during this trip because we had to hold her most of the time. She finally passed out from exhaustion and I decided that she and I would pass on the shopping trip with the other families and head back to the hotel. This is going to be a challenge for a while because our natural instinct is to hold and comfort. But this stresses her out more. Her comfort comes from being put on the floor and left alone. From what we are being told, this is common with children from this particular orphanage due to a 20 to 1 caretaker ratio.
We have one more official meeting at the consulate for her passport and birth certificate. The rest of our time will be spent on daily excursions set up by the adoption agency and getting to know our daughter. Hopefully, by the time we get on the plane to come home, she will be OK with being held. If not, it is going to be a LONG flight for us and anyone around us!!!
Next project is to work on getting "Expedited VPN" so we can use skype and facebook. We have not seen or talked with Max since last Thursday.
Oh we STILL do not have Lissie's bag!!!!!!! Hopefully we will have it late this afternoon.

I'll write more tomorrow.
Matt


Sunday, May 29, 2011

Thanks to all who replied and even to those who replied with the usual smart ass comments. I am very happy to know that there are those who still care. Lissie's bag did NOT make it in last night, but we did receive a phone call this morning stating that they have the bag in Beijing and it will be put on a flight to Guang Zoe at 3pm today. We will see.
At 2pm today we will be leaving to get Mary-Hanna at the civil affairs office here in Guang Zoe. We did learn today that she is coming from an orphanage that is about an eight hour drive south from where we are now. So that means we will not be able to go and visit.
To answer a few questions..... Mary-Hanna is 18 months old and has been at the orphanage since she has been born. Do not have any info on the birth parents. We do know that she was a premature baby and is extremely small. Just to give you an idea, she weighed 14 pounds at 11 months. That is all we know at the moment.
We will be leaving China on June 10, so the remainder of our time here will be spent doing all the required paperwork, Dr. appointments and taking an oath in front of Chinese officials stating that we will take good care of our new baby.
we will be sending out some pictures later tonight or tomorrow. We will not be able to send anything on facebook as that is not allowed in China. We are looking into Skype and if we are able to use it, we will let you know. Just as an FYI we are 12 hours ahead of you.
Thanks to all for your prayers and good thoughts.
Matt


On Sat, May 28, 2011
Well we made it to Guang Zhou today at 1am your time. Two of the bags made it to Beijing at 3am this morning and we were able to get them before we left. Unfortunately Liz's bag is still missing. According to the airline the bag will arrive in Beijing around 5pm and then they will put it on a plane to Guang Zoe, arriving at 10:40pm tonight. Needless to say we are going shopping this afternoon.
On the brighter side, we will be getting Mary-Hanna around 3pm tomorrow!!!! So excited!!!
Yesterday we met 5 other families who are adopting. We all did the Beijing tour, seeing Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. I have to say though the most exciting part of the trip was the driving around in traffic. PEOPLE ARE INSANE HERE!!! I was amazed at the things that I saw. Take your worst driving experience (For me it was Atlanta) and multiply it by 1000. INSANE!!!!!
Until tomorrow

On Fri, May 27, 2011
Well we made it to Beijing. We missed our flight due to being delayed out of Akron. But they were able to get us on another flight which actually got us here earlier!!! Now if we just had our luggage!!! We will be wearing the same clothes tomorrow as we tour Beijing. Hopefully no one will notice the odor!!!!
More to come.

Pictures!

We received Mary Hannah about 24 hours ago and this what we have observed so far:

- She currently weighs 17.6 lbs. at one week shy of 19 months. She goes rigid and her arms go up above her head when she is held.

- She prefers to be left alone to explore on her own. She can crawl to some degree, but not the typical arm/leg motion. She is able to prop up on one arm and turn to look in the opposite direction. She even knows the perfect downward dog yoga position!

- We did notice that she keeps the top part of her fingers closed most of the time. So, not a full on grip but just from the second joint to the tip. Although she is able to stretch all of her fingers out when she is reaching for something.

- She rocks back & forth on her knees to self-soothe, which is common with babies from orphanages.

- Her skin looks really good in the diaper area. Some slight bruising on her back which she is sensitive to. She appears to have a fungus on the bottom of one of her feet but does not look too serious.

- When she was handed off, it was obvious that she had a temperature and a cold with cough. This could be stress though as she had just traveled eight hours by car. We gave her infant ibuprofen when we got back to our room & that seemed to help.

- No one has ever cleaned this child's mouth! Her breath is very rancid. She is still on a diet of formula mixed with rice cereal: 8oz. 4-5x a day. We will continue that while we are here, no need to stress her further. We are also giving her 1.5 ml of multi vitamin drops in her formula daily. She drank about 3 oz. last night around 7pm and we put her down at 8pm to sleep. Poor girl was worn out as she slept to about 8:30am.

- We are concerned about her hearing. It's hard to tell with the language barrier if she can hear us. She has absolutely no verbal skills. She makes very little baby noises but is very alert and inquisitive. Even her crying is weak and I did get her to smile a few times.

Today we went back to the civil affairs office and went through two separate interviews with officials and Lissie had her picture taken with Mary Hannah. Did I mention that she does NOT like to be held? She cried for 3 hours strait during this trip because we had to hold her most of the time. She finally passed out from exhaustion and I decided that she and I would pass on the shopping trip with the other families and head back to the hotel. This is going to be a challenge for a while because our natural instinct is to hold and comfort. But this stresses her out more. Her comfort comes from being put on the floor and left alone. From what we are being told, this is common with children from this particular orphanage due to a 20 to 1 caretaker ratio.

We have one more official meeting at the consulate for her passport and birth certificate. The rest of our time will be spent on daily excursions set up by the adoption agency and getting to know our daughter. Hopefully, by the time we get on the plane to come home, she will be OK with being held. If not, it is going to be a LONG flight for us and anyone around us!!!

Next project is to work on getting "Expedited VPN" so we can use skype and facebook. We have not seen or talked with Max since last Thursday.

Oh we STILL do not have Lissie's bag!!!!!!! Hopefully we will have it late this afternoon.

** My bag came in Tuesday afternoon! Good to have my own stuff and for MH to have the few things I brought that will fit. Hope to download video later today.